


Hogwarts reads Harry Potter, The Philosophers stone.

by SPARROWPJOHOO



Series: Hogwarts read the books [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Dolores Umbridge Bashing, F/M, Hogwarts reads the books, Order of the Phoenix reads
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 19:06:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 47,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14721872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SPARROWPJOHOO/pseuds/SPARROWPJOHOO
Summary: I'm putting this story on hold, sorry. I'm just dealing with some issues so I won't have the time or energie to pust something. As soon as I have something again, I'm putting it up again!It's just you're normal 'Characters read the books' But there will be other characters in it.(PJO and characters from the future.) It takes place in 5th year with Umbridge.Just give it a chance please.Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. Those two belong to J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan





	1. Find the books

**Author's Note:**

> A/N This takes place in Harry's 5th year. Percy and Annabeth are 20. And yes, I know the timeline and stuff aren't correct but just go wth it please? 
> 
> Hope you enjoy. 
> 
> Disclaimer: All rights go to J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's just you're normal 'Characters read the books' But there will be other characters in it. It takes place in 5th year with Umbridge.
> 
>  
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Those belong to J.K. Rowling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N This takes place in Harry's 5th year. Hope you enjoy. 
> 
> Disclaimer: All rights go to J.K. Rowling.

**A/N This takes place in Harry's 5th year.** **H** **ope you enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: All rights go to J.K. Rowling.**

**\---------------------------------------------------------**

Harry and his friends were sitting in the Great hall, having lunch, when everything went downhill. 

He was actually in a good mood that day. It was weird, but he was. 

And yet, he had the feeling something bad was going to happen.

Harry looked at the High table. 

Flitwick was talking with McGonagall. 

Now that Dumbledore was gone, Harry had been feeling like something dangerous was coming.

"Harry, you alright?" Ron, who was next to him, asked. 

"Yeah, I'm fine." He vaguely answered. 

Hermione, who sat on the other side of him, shared a worried look with Ginny.

"Are you sure?" 

Harry was about to answer, when he heard strangely familiar voices outside the hall.

"I told you not to do it, and yet, you did." A woman's voice rang through the hall.

"'I'm sorry." A man's voice answered.

Three teenagers walked into the Hall. Their names? Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. All of them were 18 years old.

**(Harry, Hermione and Ron from the future will be in _italic)_**

Harry was staring at them with open mouths. More people started to notice them.

"Guys, can we just focus on the task?" _Harry_ asked as they walked to the High Table as if nothing was wrong. 

Students were standing up to see what was going on. 

"Yes, when had we agreed, again?" _Ron_ asked. For the first time the teenagers looked around, and they stopped dead in their tracks. 

"This isn't right." _Hermione_ said, looking at the teachers. 

Harry grabbed his wand, ready to attack, Hermione and Ron were ready to do the same.

"Uhmm... What is going on?" Fred asked.

 _Ron_ looked at his newly dead brother.

"That's what I'd like to know." Harry breathed.

"Ron? Harry? Hermione?" Ginny hesitantly asked.

"Yeah, that's us." _Harry_ answered.

Everyone was staring at all six of the teenagers.

"Uhm... that's not posible." Ron said.

 _Harry_ looked around the room. "Yes, but even more impossible things have happened."

 _Hermione_ grinned and turned to the trio. "And as I recall, you do have some experience with it."

They looked taken back by it. "Time travel." Harry whispered so only Ron and Hermione could hear it. 

 _Harry_ smiled and turned back to the teachers. 

"A look. It's Toad-Face." _he_ exclaimed. 

The twins and Lee Jordan burst out laughing as _Hermione_ gave him a light smack on the back of his head. Soon the whole hall was snickering. 

"I beg your pardon! I am-" Umbridge started but got cut of by _Ron_.

"Yes, yes. Annoying. We know." 

 _Hermione_ gave him a warning look.

"Why are you here?" McGonagall asked, amazed. 

"Ah, yes. I had a note." _Harry_ said. He reached inside his pocket and grabbed a note. He read it out loud so the whole hall could hear. 

**Dear everyone,**

**I know you are all confused, so I'll keep it short. It is true, these people are from the future and they are here with a message. A message in the form of books.**

Everyone was looking thoroughly confused at this.

**You will all be reading about the life of Harry Potter.**

It was silent for a second as Harry groaned loudly. 

"NO."

**Yes, yes. I know. Horrible. But it will save a lot of people in the future.**

Both of the Harry's looked up at that.

**Ready to do it yet? Here are the books.**

**Signed,**

**The Fates.**

**Ps. Nobody can receive any punishment while reading these books.**

**Have fun.**

It was silent for a second until an awful noice filled the room.

"You are lying!" Umbridge screeched.

"Where have I heard that before." Harry muttered darkly. 

"We asure you, It is real." _Hermione_ said.

It was still dead silent. 

"We will need to read the book."

"..."

"A book? I'm not reading a book." a Slytherin said.

"I agree, I'm not going to read some book about me." Harry said.

"Yes, I get that, but I promise you, it will be worth it." his future self answered.

A stack of 4 books appeared. 

"May I remind you, that whatever happens here at Hogwarts, it doesn't happen without my permission." Umbridge said again. 

 _Hermione_ let out an annoyed sigh.

"Listen, this will be bad for him without your remarks, don't make it worse."

The twins cheered _Hermione_ on.

"And everything will be in these books. Everything he has ever said, truth and lies." she continued while Harry was looking at Hermione and Ron with worry on their faces. 

"This is going to be hilarious." Draco said.

There was a short pause as Harry was panicking. 

"Will the books really cover everything?" he asked.

"I guess so. I haven't read them yet, either." _Harry_ answered.

Harry laid his head in his hands.

He would have to relive everything. 

Meeting Voldemort in his first year.

The Chamber of Secrets. 

The Dementors.  

Harry's head jerked up.

That would mean they heard Sirius's story. 

And Voldemorts return.

The _trio_ saw his reaction and smiled at each other.

"We're missing a few." _Harry_ mumbled.

The doors opened and Tonks, Remus, Sirius in his dog form, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Alastor 'Mad-eye' Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Cornelius Fudge and Amelia Bones walked in, McGonagall started to explain what was going on.  

"Well, it looks like we need a change of scenery." McGonagall said. 

He waved his wand and the tables disappeared. They were replaced with chairs. 

"Now, if everyone would be so kind to find a place?"  

Harry sat with Ron, Hermione, Remus, Tonks, Arthur, Molly, Ginny, Neville, Luna, Fred, George, Mad-eye, Bill, Charlie, _Ron_ , _Hermione_ and _Harry_.

Umbridge, Fudge, Amelia Bones and Shacklebolt were sitting with the rest of the teachers at the high table. 

The rest of the students were sitting on the chairs presented to them. 

Sirius was sitting by Harry's feet after having licked his face off. 

"Where is professor Snape?" _Harry_  suddenly asked since they already knew why Dumbledore was gone.

Ron looked at Harry. 

"Why would you care? And did you just call him 'professor'?" he whispered.

"I don't know" Harry answered.

"I don't know. He hadn't turned up for breakfast yet when you appeared." Sprout informed them.

A lot of girls were looking at 18 year old _Harry_. He had certainly glowed up. He was a lot taller and muscular than his 15 year old self. 

"Let's get this over with. I'm not really interested in reading my whole life story." Harry said quietly. 

"Okay, rules: One, everything that happened in the past, will stay in the past. You can't punish anyone for it." _Hermione_ said as Harry's heart made a little jump and looked at his fiends with big smiles.

Umbridge and Fudge wanted to object but _Hermione_ stopped them.

"Secondly, no one can get arrested before we finish all the books." she continued.

Amelia Bones agreed.

"Okay, let's begin." Ron said as McGonagall enchanted the book so it would read itself out loud.

**"Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived."**

 

 

 

 


	2. The Boy-Who-Lived

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They start reading chapter one.

**Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived.**

"Now, who could that be, Forge." George sarcastically asked with a grin.

"I have no idea, Gred." Fred answered with the same face.

Harry groaned. It seemed like the book stopped talking if someone else was. What kind of enchantment had Mcgonagall put on it?

 **Mr. and Mrs. Dursley,** **of number four, Privet Drive,**

"Wait, we're starting here?" Harry asked.

"Who are they?" a Hufflepuff first year asked.

"Uhm.. you know. Just people. My aunt and uncle."

"And what is so bad about reading about them, Mr. Potter?" Mcgonagall asked, slightly worried. She knew what kind of Muggles they were, but they couldn't have been that bad.

Harry just muttered something under his breath.

**of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.**

"You are very much welcome, good sir." Fred said while George made mocking bows and Ginny with most of the students laughed at their antics.

**They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.**

"Why not? What's the fun in that?" Lee Jordan asked.

"They just don't like it." Harry said with a shrug.

**Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills.**

"What are 'drills'?" a Slytherin asked.

"Just make a list with everything you don't know and I'll answer any questions in the breaks." Charity Burbage, the professor from Muggle Studies said.

**He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache.**

"Ugh, he sounds horrible" Dean said. He turned to Harry. "No offense."

Harry snorted without humor.

"None taken. You can say whatever you like about them. I couldn't care less."

Ron and Hermione shared an concerned glance and looked at their best friend.

 _Harry, Ron_ and _Hermione_ were looking at their past selfs. It seemed like ages ago that they were so young.

**Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors.**

"Lovely." Ginny sarcastically said.

The hall was laughing at Harry's description.

**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.**

Ron and the twins, who had seen them last year were laughing.

"No finer boy?" George said.

"My as-"

"Fred!" Mrs. Weasley cut in.

Bill and Charlie were snorting at their comments.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret,**

"Ohh-"

"How exciting."

Harry was looking at the book. It looked like this was the day his parents died.

**and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.**

"What is wrong with them?" McGonagall screeched, startling Harry.

"Nothing. There is nothing wrong with them, they were amazing people." Sprout continued.

All of the teachers and adults agreed sans Umbridge. Even Fudge agreed with them

Sirius and Remus were fuming with rage. How dare they say that?

"I am not liking these people." A first year Ravenclaw said.

Although almost nobody believed Harry, he and his parents were war heroes. Nothing could change this.

 _Harry_ looked at the book sadly. _His_ relationship with Petunia was becoming better and better. Although he would never forgive Vernon.

 **Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years;** **in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister,**

"They what?" Hermione asked looking at her best friend who started slumping in his chair.

"They pretended she didn't know your mom?" Ron asked quietly.

Harry just shrugged.

 _Hermione_ grabbed _Harry's_ hand.

 **because her** **sister and her good-for-nothing husband**

The room was ready to explode.

"James was not a good-for-nothing husband." Remus said dangerously quiet.

Most of the adults were scandalized. How could they say something like that?

Sirius was growling.

**were as unDursleyish**

"Not even a word." Hermione huffed.

"Thank god for that." George said.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want our little Harrykins to be 'Dursleyish' do we, Gred?"

"No we don't, Forge." they said trying to cheer Harry up.

 **as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the** **Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him.**

 _Hermione_ was fuming with anger. _Harry_ looked at her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"You can't do anything. This was years ago." _he_ whispered.

**This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

"I think it's the other way around." Ron said. He was also furious.

The twins weren't that happy either. They might make a lot of jokes, but Harry was like their little brother. 

**When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country.**

Most adults had figured out what day it was and were looking down sadly. Ron and Hermione who seemed to have figured it out too, were trying to comfort Harry. Hermione held his hand and Ron put his hand on his shoulder.

**Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work,**

"Why would you do that?" Terry Boot asked.

Umbridge looked at Harry with a loathing look. This was not what she had expected. Where were the lies?

**and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**

"That horrible child." Molly said. Harry grew up with them?

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.**

Harry rolled his eyes.

"Of course not. They never notice anything that doesn't fit in their perfect little world."

Malfoy snorted over at the Slytherin table. Stupid muggles.

 **At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed,** **because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. "Little tyke,"**

Almost all of the adults were looking scandalized.

"That horrible child." McGonagall said.

"Why would you support such behavior?" Sprout asked.

**chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**

"I don't really like him." Hermione said while looking at Harry who had a thoughtful expression.

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar --**

"In Privet Drive? Something peculiar? Well that's a shocker." Harry snorted while a few people chuckled.

**a cat reading a map.**

"A cat reading a map, he?" Remus chuckled, looking at McGonagall suspiciously.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen --**

"When does he?" _Harry_ said. Sure his relationship with Dudley was better than ever, but he would never make peace with his uncle.

Ron and Hermione were looking at both of the Harry's. Future _Harry_ seemed to have a lot more scars that they could see and they shared a glance.

 **then he jerked his head around to** **look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet** **Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight.**

A few people were chuckling.

"That would be magic." Remus smirked at Mcgonagall, now sure it was her.

**What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light.**

"Sure, that was it." Malfoy sniggered as Crabbe and Goyle followed.

 **Mr. Dursley blinked and** **stared at the cat. It stared back.**

McGonagall was smirking a bit as the teachers and a few adults looked at her, but as she remembered what day it was, she let her gaze drift to the 5th year Gryffindor, with worry in her eyes.

 **As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror.** **It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive -- no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs.**

"Well, normal cat's can't." Remus sniggered.

 **Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind.** **As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

"That looks like-" George began.

"-an interesting day." Fred finished.

Harry was ignoring the looks of people who had figured out what day it was. If it was really a book about his life, there would be worse days to come.

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else.**

"So he can't think of two things at once?" _Hermione_ asked with a raised eyebrow. _Harry_ just shrugged in response. "idiot..."

**As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam,**

"I hate those things." a Ravenclaw muggle-born mumbled, and a few others agreed.

 **he couldn't help** **noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people** **about. People in cloaks.**

"What's wrong with that?" Nott asked.

"Muggles don't wear cloaks." Arthur Weasley pipped in.

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes -- the getups you saw on young people!**

Harry snorted without humor. "That's all they care about, being 'normal'."

**He supposed this was some stupid new fashion.**

"No, actually. It's quite old." Flitwick chimed as a few people laughed. The Weasley twins mostly.

 **He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite** **close by.**

"NO!" Fred screamed suddenly, making quite a few people jump.

"NOT THE WEIRDOS!" George finished as Mrs. Weasley and McGonagall sent them a warning glance.

**They were whispering excitedly together.**

"About what? What is the reason of the carelessly of us?" Ginny wondered.

She looked at Harry and saw him looking at the table with a distant look. She shared a glance with Hermione and suddenly she knew what was happening. Her mouth formed into an o as she looked at Harry with sympathy.

Padfoot laid his head on Harry's knee.

**Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak!**

"That reminds me of professor Dumbledore." Tonks grinned as Charlie laughed.

"It does..." Remus smiled.

Harry meanwhile was thinking of all the things that might be in these books.

**The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt -- these people were obviously collecting for something...**

"Yes, that's it." Malfoy rolled his eyes. Stupid muggles...

**yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.**

"Why would you to think about drills? That is about the most boring thing ever." A Ravenclaw sixth year said.

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning.**

"Why?" Bill asked.

"If you would keep your mouth shut for a second, we will find out." Mad-eye grunted.

**He didn't see the owls swoop ing past in broad daylight,**

"Oh..."

**though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open- mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead.**

"Why? It's not that weird..." a Hufflepuff pureblood said.

"It is for muggles." Her friend explained.

**Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighttime.**

"See."

**Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning.**

"How boring." George said and Angelina rolled her eyes at him.

**He yelled at five different people.**

"That's not very nice of him." Luna frowned.

 _Harry_ laughed. "That's a pretty accurate description, Luna."

**He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. He was in a very good mood**

"Why would you be in a good mood after that?" Hermione huffed.

Umbridge was looking at the Potter boy with hatred in her eyes. Nothing she heard up until now had been useful for her.

**until lunchtime,**

"Good, his mood-" George began.

"-was bad again." Fred finished.

**when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road**

"Walk? Did he say walk?" _Ron_ asked as _Hermione_ shot him an amused glance.

**to buy himself a bun from the bakery.**

"Well, that explains it." _Harry_ joked.

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks**

"How? For Muggles it's pretty uncommon." Justin wondered.

"Because he's an idiot." Seamus said.

**until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed.**

"Wow, I would have run if he came any close to me." Dean joked.

Parvati and Lavender looked as though they agreed.

**He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy.**

"Good, he should feel uneasy around wizards. Definitely if he thinks about them like that." Sprout said. Quite a few people agreed.

**This bunch were whispering excitedly,**

"About what?" Susan mumbled annoyed. Almost all the students in the Hall was thinking the same.

Most adults who had been there, who had figured out what had happened, they were looking at Harry as he still stared at the table.

**too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin.**

"That's because they're not collecting." Neville said thoughtfully. He looked at Harry, then at Ron and Hermione, and to the adults. He put one and one together and understood why he had been so still.

 **It was on** **his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag,**

"Yes, you wouldn't-"

"-want to lose that."

Katie slapped the twins lightly on their heads.

**that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

"Oooh. What's the big secret?" Lee Jordan asked, buzzing with excitement.

**"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard yes, their son, Harry"**

It was silent for a minute in the room as everyone was processing this. Most people still didn't know what was going on, but most of the DA had an idea now.

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead.**

"It's an expression." _Hermione_ said as she saw the twins get ready to dance.

**Fear flooded him.**

"Why? What's so bad about them?" Hannah asked frustrated.

**He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them,**

"Don't."

**but thought better of it.**

"Really?"

"He can think?"

"Fred, George. Don't say stuff like that." Mrs. Weasley said as almost everyone laughed.

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office,**

"He must be really worried." Ron said, trying to cheer Harry up. He looked up and gave him a weak smile.

**snapped at his secretary not to disturb him,**

"Again, so rude." Sprout added.

**seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind.**

"He can't really say on topic, can he?" Ravenclaw inquired.

"Not really." Her friend laughed.

**He put the receiver back down and stroked his mustache, thinking...**

The Weasley twins were about to say something, but one look from their mother stopped them.

**no, he was being stupid.**

"Understatement of the century." Alicia spinnet huffed. She was definitely not liking him. Angelina, Katie and Alicia were all wondering what he had to do with Harry, apart from being his uncle.

**Potter wasn't such an unusual name.**

"Yes, it is." Neville frowned.

"It isn't in the muggle world." _Harry_ shrugged.

**He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry.**

"And I'm sure he's right, just not in my world." Harry mumbled.

 **Come to think** **of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry.**

"They didn't know your name?" Hermione screeched, looking murderously. McGonagall was frowning. Had it really been such a good idea to leave the boy with those Muggles?

"It's not like they were very fond of me. I hadn't even met them." Harry said. This did not seem to calm Hermione down.

**He'd never even seen the boy.**

"See?" Harry smiled at his two best friends.

"Harry, that's not as good as an argument as you think." Ron told him.

**It might have been Harvey. Or Harold.**

"Harvey Potter. Harold Potter." Fred tried thoughtfully.

"Nope, we like Harry better." George smiled at Harry who smiled back.

**There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister.**

"Why would you get upset? Lily was one of the nicest person I have ever met." Flitwick fumed. Almost everyone agreed. Even Fudge did.

**He didn't blame her -- if he'd had a sister like that...**

"Those pigs!" Ginny exclaimed.

All around the room people were looking disgusted.

Remus had never looked so furious.

Sirius was growling.

McGonagall was holding the arms of her chair so tightly, her knuckles turned white.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley looked down sadly. They had known Lily and James from the Order, and she could not believe someone could think something like that about them.

Ron and Hermione, who were also angry, turned to look at Harry, expecting him to lose his temper, like he had done all year. But he did nothing. Harry was far too used to it.

 **but all** **the same, those people in cloaks...**

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon**

"Good. You should worry. When I get my hands on you..." Remus muttered.

**and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

"Typical." A seventh year Slytherin said.

**"Sorry," he grunted,**

"He knows that word?" Harry asked surprised.

 **as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It** **was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak.**

"Oh, he won't like that, alright." Fred grinned.

**He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground.**

"Why not?" Someone in the back of the room asked.

 **On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in** **a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir,**

"Oh I think he should be sorry. For everything." Ron grumbled.

**for nothing could upset me today!**

"But why?!" Susan was frustrated again.

**Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last!**

"Oh..." She said weakly. 

 **Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy,** **happy day!"**

"So... I'm guessing this is... 1 November 1981." Katie asked asked with sympathy in her voice.

Nobody said anything for a minute as they paid some respect to the fallen ones.

The only one who didn't was Umbridge and a few Slytherins who were planning on becoming a Death Eater.

Even Malfoy didn't say anything. He may not like Potter, but he still lost his parents.

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.**

"I'm surprised he fit," said Neville Longbottom.

Everyone who heard looked at him shocked.

"What?" He asked nervously started to turn red.

"Go Neville!" yelled the Weasley twins.

That made a few people laugh.

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger.**

"Yes, but he didn't deserve it." Tonks snarled.

**He also thought he had been called a Muggle,**

"Because he is a Muggle." Charlie put in.

**whatever that was. He was rattled.**

"Oh, come on. It wasn't that weird." Ernie said, rolling his eyes

 **He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping** **he was imagining things,**

"I'm afraid not." _Harry_ answered, while shaking his head.

**which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.**

"How could you not approve of imagination?" Luna asked, while the twins and Lee gasped loudly.

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw -- and it didn't improve his mood --**

"Oh, how unfortunate." Ginny sarcastically said.

**was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning.**

"Still there." Remus shot a questioning glance at McGonagall, who did not look too happy.

**It was now sitting on his garden wall.**

"Were you there all day Minerva?" Asked Pomona.

"Yes," she whispered.

**He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

"Markings?" Hermione mumbled. If only the book would confirm her suspicions.

 **"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly. The cat didn't move.** **It just gave him a stern look.**

"Is that you professor?" An amused Hermione asked as three quarters of the hall was laughing.

McGonagall just nodded stiffly.

"It sounds like you gave him the same look that you normally give us," said Fred.

"Maybe if you two would focus more on school and less on pranks I wouldn't need to look at you two like that," sniffed McGonagall.

The twins looked appalled at the suggestion. Their mother gave then a stern look, which they then in turn sent her twin innocent smiles. Ron, Harry and Ginny snorted at that.

**Was this normal cat behavior?**

"No, but is normal Professor McGonagall behavior." Remus laughed.

**Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

"You shouldn't lie to your wife." Luna frowned.

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day.**

"Nothing out of the ordinary? How shocking." Harry mumbled.

**She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter**

"So that's where you learned to eavesdrop." Ron exclaimed.

**and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't!").**

"Horrible child." Sprout spat.

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally.**

"Don't you always?"

**When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

"That sounds exciting."

Umbridge was fuming. Why was she even reading this?

**"And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise.**

"Of course there has. You-Know-Who had just been defeated." Susan said.

 **Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly** **changed their sleeping pattern."**

"That would be weird." Justin grinned.

**The newscaster allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**

"Horrible pun." Parvati said. Quite a few people agreed.

**"Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars!**

"I get that everyone is celebrating, but it's a miracle we haven't been exposed yet." A Slytherin said.

 **Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early -- it's** **not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."** **Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair.**

The twins chuckled again.

**Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters...**

"Ooohhh. Is he putting it together? Is he capable of doing that?" a Ravenclaw asked mockingly.

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously.**

"He's a bit of a coward, isn't he?" A Gryffindor first year asked.

"A bit?" Her friend sorted.

**"Er -- Petunia, dear -- you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

"No." Remus whispered.

"And now she never will." Molly added sadly.

**As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

Angry growled where heard across the room again as Padfoot began to whine.

**"No," she said sharply. "Why?"**

"Because she just died and now you need to take her son in." _Harry_ whispered, looking down.

**"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls... shooting stars... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today..."**

"He really put it together." The same Ravenclaw said.

**"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

"So you will need to take her son in." Harry muttered.

**"Well, I just thought... maybe... it was something to do with... you know... her crowd."**

"Her... crowd?" McGonagall asked in a dangerous voice. "What exactly does he mean with that, Mr. Potter?"

"Oh... you know... people with magic." Harry said.

This didn't seem to have the positive effect he hoped it had.

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips.**

"Charming." Lavender wrinkled her nose.

**Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare.**

"Yep, he's definitely a coward." Someone on the other side of the Gryffindor table said.

**Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son --**

"That's me." _Harry_ grinned.

**he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"**

"A bit younger." _Ron_ chuckled.

**"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.**

**"What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"**

"Nope. Its-"

"-The Boy-Who-Lived."

"Oh, shut up."

**"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

"Actually back then, it wasn't that common. In the wizarding world anyway," said McGonagall. "But after You-Know-Who's downfall, it became a popular name."

"Really, why?" Asked Harry. "What?" He added, when people turned and stared at him with their eyebrows raised in disbelief.

"You seriously didn't just ask that, Potter?" sneered Draco.

"Yeah I did. Why are you all looking at me like that?" Harry asked.

"You had just defeated the Dark Lord so people wanted to name their children after you, idiot." Draco drawled.

Harry blushed as many people, especially the Slytherins sniggered.

**"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

"Well, I don't." was heard all around the room, most of them were from the Gryffindor table.

Hermione rolled her eyes but she couldn't help but feel worried. She didn't like the way these Dursleys behaved. She had a bad feeling about them.

"They have no respect. How could you say stuff like that?" Mrs. Weasley asked, shocked.

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed.**

"Good, because we don't care about your opinion." Neville frowned.

**While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there.**

Most students either chuckled or grinned at the Professor.

**It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.**

"What were you waiting for, professor?" someone asked.

**Was he imagining things?**

"Nope, I thought we-" Fred began.

"-already established that." George finished.

**Could all this have anything to do with the Potters?**

"Unfortunately." Harry muttered.

 **If it did... if it got out that they were related to a pair of** **\--**

"Oh shut up!"

"Ginevra!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed surprised as Fred and George rolled over the ground laughing.

"What?"

**well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

"I think it's the other way around." Ginny grumbled. Lucky for her, her mother didn't hear. But her brothers and Harry did.

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind.**

"I guess we also know where you get your brooding from." Hermione chuckled.

**His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved,**

"Which we were."

**there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley.**

"How many times can you be wrong?" Hermione asked frustrated.

 **The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about** **them and their kind....**

"Oh, yes they did."

**He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on -- he yawned and turned over -- it couldn't affect them....**

"I think he has just broken a record." _Harry_ announced.

"What record?" _Hermione_ asked.

"For how many times you can get something wrong."

**How very wrong he was.**

"See." _Harry_ laughed.

"How exactly were you affected by it? What do they have to do with it?" Katie asked, Harry just shrugged.

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness.**

"Of course not." Remus laughed.

 **It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of** **Privet Drive.**

"Who are you waiting for?" Someone asked again.

**It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street,**

"See, that's definitely you, professor." Fred grinned.

**nor when two owls swooped overhead.**

"How more oblivious can it get that it's you?" George asked.

**In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

"How?" Ron asked confused.

"Patience, Mr. Weasley." McGonagall answered.

"Yeah, but we know Ron doesn't have any." _Harry_ joked.

"Oi!"

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching,**

"Is that who you were waiting for, professor?" a second year old Hufflepuff asked.

McGonagall nodded stiffly, knowing what would happen next.

**appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground.**

"That's a wizard." Someone stated.

"Great observation skills." His friend snorted.

**The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

There was laughter around the hall again.

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive.**

"So, it can only be good." _Hermione_ said.

"Yeah, I mean, the Privet drive is so boring, any entertainment would be good." _Harry_ grinned.

**He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice.**

"DUMBLEDORE!" Was screamed around the room.

**This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

"See." Fred grinned.

"No one disagreed with you." Alicia said, rolling her eyes.

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome.**

"Oh I think he knew, I just don't think he cares." _Ron_ grinned.

 _Harry_ and _Hermione_ were nodding and laughing.

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something.**

"Is it a pen?" someone asked. He got a lot of weird looks.

**But he did seem to realize he was being watched,**

"Of course he did." McGonagall rolled her eyes.

Umbridge was still scowling. That senile man.

Fudge was frowning. What was he doing there?

Amelia Bones was thinking something along the same lines.

**because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street.**

"Well, will you just get a move on and tell us what is happening already?" Someone groaned.

 **For** **some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him.**

"It would have been amusing to me." Remus muttered.

**He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

"Should have know what?" A Gryffindor asked.

His friend rolled her eyes. "That McGonagall was there, of course."

"Right..."

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket.**

"What was it?" Tonks asked.

"If you'd just keep your mouth shut for a second, maybe we would find out." Moody grunted.

Tonks just rolled her eyes.

**It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter.**

"So... not a pen?"

 **He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and** **clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop.**

"Wait... what?" George asked confused.

 **He** **clicked it again -- the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times** **he clicked the Put-Outer,**

"That's a weird name, but an awesome device." Bill grinned.

 **until the only lights left on the whole street** **were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him.**

"Okay, that is a dark street." Neville said.

"You don't say." Malfoy sneered under his breath.

**If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley,**

Laughter filled the hall again.

**they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement.**

"So... really dark then?"

**Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four,**

"Yes, but why?" someone asked, frustrated.

**where he sat down on the wall next to the cat.**

"It would have been weird if it had been just a normal cat." Tonks grinned.

 **H** **e didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

"That would be even weirder if people saw it."

**"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

"Yes, quite fancy." Fred said in a stuck up voice and George nodded along, as Angelina rolled her eyes.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone.**

"What?"

 **Instead he was smiling** **at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes.**

"That's an accurate description." Remus laughed as McGonagall gave him a warning look.

**She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one.**

"Of course I was." She said, rolling her eyes.

**Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

_'Of course I was.'_ McGonagall thought to herself. Thinking of two of her best students. _'They didn't deserve to die so young.'_ She thought sadly.

**"How did you know it was me?" she asked**

"Because it's Dumbledore." Charlie answered as if that explained everything, which it kinda did.

**"My dear Professor, I 've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

"That would help, too." Bill chuckled.

**"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

"Why all day?" Ron asked surprised.

**"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

"I would be celebrating, too." a Slytherin said. He got some sour looks from a few of his housemates, but he just ignored them.

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

The three pranksters were silent laughing now.

**"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently.**

"Can you blame them?"

**"You'd think they'd be a bit more careful,**

"Okay, that is true." the same person agreed.

**but no -- even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news."**

"Eavesdropping, are we?" Remus smirked. McGonagall gave him a stern look.

**She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls... shooting stars.... Well, they're not completely stupid.**

"You sure?" Malfoy muttered again.

**They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent -- I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"Maybe, but he is very funny." Tonks laughed.

**"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

"That's true. It must be nice to finally be out of a war." Padma Patil stated.

"It is." _Harry_ sighed and those who hear looked at him in interest. 

**"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads.**

"Exactly. I think it's a bit too much what they are all doing." Terry Boot said.

**People are being downright careless,**

"Couldn't agree more."

**out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."**

"People were really being stupid that day." Amelia thoughtfully said.

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on.**

"Always the best way to find something out. Never directly ask something." George said wisely and Fred nodded.

 **"A** **fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all.**

"That would really ironic and awful." Susan acknowledged.

**I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"**

"Yes!" Umbridge screeched. Harry rolled his eyes.

**"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore.**

"See? He is gone!" She continued.

"I really don't care what you think anymore. So just don't scream." Harry grunted, glaring at her along with three quarters of the Hall. They may not believe Harry, but she was still a toad.

**"We have much to be thankful for.**

"Amen." A muggle-born muttered

**Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

"A what?" Neville asked.

**"A what?"**

"Oh." He blushed.

**"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of"**

Some people chuckled, others, like Mr, and Mrs. Weasley were looking worried what would come next.

**"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops.**

Hermione snorted. "That's because it's not."

**"As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone -"**

"I still don't get why people won't just say Voldemort. Especially since you think he's gone now." Harry called out to the room. A few people shifted in their chairs.

**"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him  
by his name? **

"Exactly."

 **All this 'You- Know-Who' nonsense -- for eleven years I** **have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort."**

Around the room, people flinched or gasped.

"Okay, if this story is gonna go as I think it is, you will have to hear his name a lot. So stop reacting like that." Harry warned, annoyed.

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops,**

More snickering.

 **seemed not to notice. "It all gets so** **confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.'**

"Only Dumbledore could think that." Remus laughed.

**I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name.**

"Me neither." Harry said.

**"I know you haven 't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring.**

As the twins laughed again, McGonagall gave them another warning look.

**"But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort,**

"You said the name!" Fred and George gasped.

"Mr's Weasley's. Please be quiet for a couple of minutes." McGonagall said, annoyed again.

**was frightened of."**

"That's not true." _Ron_ said. Everyone turned to look at him.

"He was also afraid of Harry." He finished and grinned at _Harry_ , who rolled his eyes.

**"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"Yes, but that's not because he can't use them." Harry said.

"Yeah, he just chooses not to." Hermione finished.

**"Only because you're too -- well -- noble to use them."**

"Exactly!"

**"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

Laughter filled the hall again as Madam Pomfrey shook her head fondly. That man will never change.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying?**

"No."

**About why he's disappeared?**

"Oh... But we do-"

"-know about that."

**About what finally stopped him?"**

"Harry!" a few of his friends yelled.

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss,**

"Of course it was. I needed to know if it was true what everyone was saying." Mcgonagall muttered.

 **the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now.** **It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until** **Dumbledore told her it was true.**

"Not a chance in heaven. It was so horrible." she sighed.

"I wish it wasn't true." Hermione said, her eyes became moist.

**Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.**

Some people rolled their eyes.

**"What they're saying," she pressed on,**

"You should always press on!" Fred said, trying to cheer Harry up. It didn't work.

**"is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters.**

Pitying looks were send in Harry directions, which he choose to ignore. **  
**

**The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are -- are -- that they're -- dead. "**

Most of the professors looked down sadly.

Sprout, McGonagall, Aurora Sinistra and Poppy Pomfrey had tears in their eyes. So did a majority of the female Hogwarts population.

Hermione grabbed Harry's hand in a comforting gesture.

Ron looked at him sadly. _'Harry doesn't deserve this.'_ He thought thinking of how good of a best friend Harry has always been.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

A few people sniffed sadly.

**"Lily and James... I can't believe it... I didn't want to believe it... Oh, Albus..."**

"I still don't want to believe it," muttered McGonagall sadly.

 _'Me neither professor.'_  Harry thought.

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know... I know..." he said heavily.**

"James and Lily were so nice. It had effected everyone when they died." Molly sniffed.

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all.**

"Of course it isn't." Harry mumbled angrily.

**They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. But -- he couldn't.**

"Because he has too big of an ego." _Harry_ told _Ron_ and _Hermione_.

**He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why,**

_'He does.'_ Harry thought as he looked at the empty seat of Dumbledore.

**or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke -- and that's why he's gone.**

"It is." Remus nodded sadly. He looked at Harry and then at Sirius. He missed Lily and James more than anything, but he was glad he still had them.

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

**"It's -- it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done... all the people he's killed... he couldn't kill a little boy?**

"Yep." Harry agreed.

"Why?" Susan asked him, but he didn't answer.

**It's just astounding... of all the things to stop him... but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

"That's what I would like to know." several people muttered.

Ron and Hermione looked at each other, both knowing why, seeing as Harry told them at the end of their first year.

 _'You'll all find out soon enough.'_ Harry thought to himself thinking of his conversation with Dumbledore when he was in the hospital wing.

**"We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

"He did know." Harry muttered again.

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles.**

"Are those human emotions?" Remus sadly smiled at his old head of house.

**Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch.**

"What do you mean, odd?" Ginny asked.

**It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge.**

"Okay, that is odd." Ginny acknowledged.

"That is so cool!" Fred screamed.

"Where can we buy it?" George finished.

**It must have made sense to Dumbledore,**

"Of course it does."

 **though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was** **he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

"Yes, because he can't keep secrets." _Harry_ laughed as Hagrid blushed.

**"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"**

"That's what we'd like to know."

**"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

"What?" Several students yelled.

"He can't leave him with those horrid people!" Angelina Johnson yelled.

"It was the only family he had left. Professor Dumbledore didn't have a choice." McGonagall said, but even she looked doubtful.

"You grew up with them?" Someone asked Harry, who just nodded.

A lot of students were looking at the Boy-Who-Lived questionably. How had they not known?

**"You don't mean -- you can't mean the people who live here?"**

"Exactly!" Hannah cried out.

**cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore -- you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son --**

"A horribel one." Harry mumbled.

**I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"**

"Thanks for trying, Professor." Harry gave a weak smile.

Several of the teachers exchanged looks. Just how awful were these people towards Harry?

The horrible feeling in Hermione's stomach grew.

**"It's the best place for him,"**

"No it isn't." Ron yelled furious. Fred and George agreed immediately. 

**said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older.**

"They didn'." Hagrid growled silently.

**I've written them a letter."**

"A letter." Hermione repeated weakly. "How could you possibly explain everything in a letter?"

 _Harry_ shrugged. "Apparently not good enough."

**"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter?**

"Exactly. This is a human boy we're talking about. You can't just leave him like that." Neville frowned and Harry smiled at him. All of the DA agreed with him.

**These people will never understand him!**

"They didn't."

**He'll be famous -- a legend --**

"Unfortunately." Harry groaned. A lot of people who didn't know him looked at him weirdly.

"You're even more famous now." _Ron_ laughed as _Harry_ glared at him.

"No!" he groaned again.

**I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future --**

"No!" Harry told the Weasley twins who had a mischievous glint in their eyes. "We are not inventing a Harry Potter day."

**there will be books written about Harry --**

"Hey, it came true." Terry said cheerfully.

 **every child** **in our world will know his name!"**

"Professor, I think you might be a Seer." Colin laughed

**"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

"I guess I can understand that." Harry reluctantly agreed.

His friends laughed.

"What?" He asked confused.

"You couldn't have a big head, even if you wanted to." Dean gasped.

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes -- yes, you're right, of course.**

"Of course he's right, he's Dumbledore."

 **But how is the boy** **getting here, Dumbledore?"**

"Flying on a broomstick of course. He's Harry Potter." Fred said.

**She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

The Hall burst out laughing at that thought.

**"Hagrid's bringing him."**

"Good. that way he will be safe." Remus said and Hagrid beamed at him.

**"You think it -- wise -- to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"I'm sorry, Hagrid. You know I didn't mean it like that." she apologized.

"It's fine, professor."

**I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

"Me too." was heard from his friends and Hagrid beamed again.

**"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to --**

"That's true. It's hard to forget Aragog" _Harry_ grinned as _Ron_ groaned and _Hermione_ laughed. Hagrid looked sheepish.

**what was that?"**

"Charlie riding a dragon."

Everyone looked at Fred.

"What?"

 **A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a** **headlight;**

"What is it?" an excited first year old asked.

**it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky -- and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

"Wicked!" exclaimed half of the Hogwarts male population.

Ginny rolled her eyes and muttered, "Boys."

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride  
it. **

"Definitely not." Remus grinned.

 **He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild - long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were** **like baby dolphins.**

"HAGRID!"

**In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

"You were such a cute baby," said Molly, she had seen him a couple of times in the order, causing Harry to blush and many boys to snigger.

Many girls cooed at that much to Harry's embarrassment.

**"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

"From the greatest godfather ever." Harry whispered and Hermione and Ron smiled at him, as Padfoot gave a happy bark.

**"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me.**

Padfoot began shaking his tail in excitement.

"Sirius Black. I thought he was a mass-murderer. Why would he give Hagrid his motorcycle?"

Amelia Bones began to think deep at this.

**I've got him, sir."**

"Thank Merlin for that." Molly whispered.

**"No problems, were there?"**

**"No, sir -- house was almost destroyed,**

A lot of people looked down in respect at that.

**but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

"Awww." a lot of girls, including Hermione and Ginny cooed. Harry was blushing.

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

"You must have been such a cute baby, Harry." Hermione cooed again.

"He was, I still have pictures. You can see them later if you want." Remus grinned.

"No!" Harry groaned as Hermione immediately agreed and his friends laughed.

**"Is that where -?" whispered Professor McGonagall. "Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."**

Harry huffed annoyed.

**"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

He looked up hopefully.

**"Even if I could, I wouldn't.**

"I would." he called out in the Hall.

**Scars can come in handy.**

_Harry_ had to agree there. It had came in handy in the war.

**I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground.**

Laughter filled the hall again as McGonagall rolled her eyes.

**Well -- give him here, Hagrid -- we'd better get this over with."**

A few people frowned. That's not the best way to say it.

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

"You can still turn back." Angelina pleaded.

Harry decided not to tell her she was talking to a book.

**"Could I -- could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid.**

Both the trio's smiled warmly at Hagrid as he smiled back.

**He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss.**

_Harry_ snickered. "Thanks Hagrid."

 **Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.** **"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "you'll wake the Muggles!"**

"She's right, you know." Padma told him.

**"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it -- Lily an' James dead -- an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles -"**

The adults were misty eyed and Remus looked down sadly.

Why did it have to end this way?

**"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or  
we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm **

People couldn't help but chuckle at this a bit.

**as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door.**

"Why didn't he just knock when they were awake. I don't think they will appreciate being awoken like that." Dean wondered.

**He laid Harry gently on the doorstep,**

"He did what?" Hermione asked dangerously as Harry began to shrunk in his chair.

 **took a letter out** **of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to** **the other two.**

"He just left you there?!" Hermione screamed.

A lot of people looked outraged. A lot more than Harry would have thought cared. Even Malfoy didn't look to happy.

Umbridge was glowing with the bad attention against Dumbledore.

"Yes, and I know he regrets it. Besides, there were all kinds of protection's around him." McGonagall told everyone.

Harry looked at her, and then an Umbridge, who was glowing like the devil.

"She's right. Besides, I'm fine." He told everyone, not wanting to give Umbridge what she wanted.

His friends and the adults seemed to pick up on it and didn't say anything anymore. But they vowed to talk to Dumbledore later.

 **For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at** **the little bundle;**

McGonagall and Hagrid smiled sadly at the memory. It had been heartbreaking to do that.

 **Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall** **blinked furiously,**

"Harry, what did you do to Professor McGonagall. She's showing emotion's." Fred gasped as you heard laughter and McGonagall gave the twins a reprimanding look.

**and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

Everyone looked at Harry. He had really touched everyone, even when he was little.

**"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

"Subtle..." _Hermione_ said.

**"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall -- Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

Amelia was thinking hard again. Something was wrong with that picture.

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

"How on earth did you sleep through that?" Asked Neville.

Harry shrugged, he has no idea.

**"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

Fred and George were about to comment, but saw the look their mother gave them, and decided not to.

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange**

"Still cool." Bill muttered.

**and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

"Oh Harry. I can't wait to see those pictures." Hermione smiled and Ron laughed at Harry's red face.

"Me too." Ginny laughed and George and Fred joined the laughter.

**"Good luck, Harry,"**

"I'm gonna need it." He whispered, but Hermione and Ron heard and shared a worried glance again.

**he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

"Magic..." George mysteriously said.

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen.**

"That's definitely true. It's the most boring street in the world." _Harry_ told everyone.

**Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on,**

The girls cooed again and the boys laughed.

 **not knowing he was special,** **not knowing he was famous,**

"I think he still doesn't quite get it." Ginny teased.

"Oh, shut up."

**not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream**

"That's a awful way to wake up." Ginny winced.

**as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley...**

"He really sounds horrible." Seamus said.

**He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter -- the boy who lived!"**

"We did that too." Neville said. "I can't remember obliviously, but my gran told me about."

All across the room people agreed.

"That seem's to be the end of the chapter." Sprout said. She looked around. "Shall we continue?" ****


	3. The Vanishing Glass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and Hogwarts continue with the book.

 

  
**THE VANISHING GLASS**

"Vanishing glass? What does that mean?" Seamus asked.

Harry groaned. "I think I know what this was." Would they be reading about his home life. More then they already had?

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step,**

A few people growled. Some of them were quite unexpected.

**but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.**

"Really? Well, that's a big surprise." _Harry_ sarcastically said. A lot of people laughed at that.

**The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls.**

A few people snickered at the reminder.

"So dramatic." _Ron_ rolled his eyes.

**Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed.**

"That's poetic." Luna dreamily said.

**Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets --**

Laughter filled the room, but the Weasley twins were the loudest.

"Oh Merlin! That's hilarious!"

**but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby,**

"Although he still acts like it." Harry snorted.

**and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle,**

"Which he broke," Harry added in a tone of voice that suggested it was an afterthought.

Ron snorted.

**on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother.**

Draco and a few of his Slytherin friends were laughing harshly.

**The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

"Why aren't there any pictures of you?" Hermione asked calmly, but Harry and Ron both recognized the silent rage.

"Uhm... I don't like cameras?" Harry suggested. It was more of a question than statement.

Hermione huffed. Almost everyone in the room was looking at Harry questionably. What wasn't he telling them? McGonagall was seriously starting to worry.

 _Ron_ glared at the book and _Hermione_ glared at _Harry_ , as they knew why there weren't actually any photographs.

**Yet Harry Potter was still there,**

"Yes, and they better remember that." Bill frowned.

**asleep at the moment, but not for long.**

"Why not?" Dean asked.

**His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

"Ugh. That must be a horrible way to wake up." Seamus whined.

"It is." Harry told him.

**"Up! Get up! Now!"**

"Don't have to be so rude about it." Susan frowned.

"Why is she so rude?" Tonks questioned. She turned to Harry who just shrugged.

"You'll have to ask her."

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.**

"You know, there is this thing called patience." Charlie frowned.

**"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove.**

Ron's stomach began to rumble at that and Hermione laughed good-naturaly at him.

**He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having.**

"I can never remember mine. It's so annoying." Tonks said.

**It had been a good one.**

"I always love the good ones. There always so... good." A Hufflepuff said.

Her friend laughed. "Nicely put."

**There had been a flying motorcycle in it.**

"Like the one Hagrid had?" Parvati asked.

**He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

"Well, it wasn't a dream." Hermione told him. "How did you remember that?"

"I don't know." Harry answered her. "I just... do."

A few adults looked at Harry with interest.

**His aunt was back outside the door. "Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

"Gosh, Have some patience." Ginny said.

**"Nearly," said Harry.**

"You either wake up really slowly, which you almost never do, or you wake up in a second and jump out of bed. It's really weird." Dean told him.

Harry smiled a bit. "Reflexes."

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon.**

"Wait, what does she mean by that?" Ron asked.

"Did they let you cook?" Hermione asked shocked.

"Uhm... yeah." Harry answered nervously.

"How old were you when you started?" Molly asked. She was not liking those muggles.

"I guess... when I was about seven or eight. I can't really remember." Harry told her.

Sirius was growling and a lot of people were glaring at the book.

**And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

"Duddy? What kind-" George laughed.

"-of name is that?" Fred finished.

**Harry groaned.**

"I would too, mate." Ron told him.

**"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door. "Nothing, nothing..."**

"Good. Never admit." George yelled. Mrs. Weasley sent her son a warning glance.

**Dudley's birthday -- how could he have forgotten?**

"Yeah, it's not like I look forward to it." Harry muttered.

"I don't think anyone would." Justin frowned.

**Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed**

"You really need to learn how to clean up your room. Both of you. It's a mess." _Hermione_ told her _best friends._

**and, after pulling a spider off one of them,**

"Spiders. Yuck. I hate spiders." said Ron.

"I know." Harry laughed. Ron glared at him.

**put them on. Harry was used to spiders,**

"How could you ever be used to spiders? They are evil." Ron frowned. He turned to Harry, who was looking very uncomfortable. "Why are you used to spiders?"

**because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them,**

"Okay, so? Do you need to go in there a lot. They don't make you clean do they?" Hermione asked. A dreading feeling in her stomach was growing.

**and that was where he slept.**

One person gasped. One single student, somewhere from the middle of the Hufflepuff table, and then it was silent. So silent you could have heard a pin drop.

Harry was looking at the table. He refused to look up.

Hermione shared a look with Ron. They knew Harry would never want anything as pity.

The Weasley's were furious. Harry was family. He should never have been treated like that. And The next time they would see the Dursley's again, they would pay for it.

The rest of Harry's friend were staring at Harry with open mouths. They had never expected this.

The remaining students were looking at the Boy-Who-Lived in confusion. Had he really lived like that? What didn't they know about him? Was he really the way they thought he was?

The teachers were outraged. Especially McGonagall. How could they do that to a child?

Umbridge was delighted. That brat deserved it.

Amelia Bones and the Aurors were thinking of ways to get the kid out of there.

Remus didn't know what to think. Sirius was devastated. If he hadn't gone after Wormtail, then he could have stopped this.

"Harry?" Hermione gently said. Harry turned to look at her.

"Why didn't you ever tell us about this?" Ron asked.

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. It wasn't important." He saw that Hermione was about to argue. "I told people before Hogwarts, but nobody ever listened to me. So, I just stopped trying. Besides, I got my own room not very long after this." Harry told them.

"Yeah, but this is something you should tell us. You know we will always believe you." Hermione said.

Harry nodded. "I know."

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents.**

"How many does he get?" Fred asked.

"A lot." _Harry_ told him.

**It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted,**

"Of course he did." Harry rolled his eyes.

**not to mention the second television and the racing bike.**

"A racing bike? Why would he want a racing bike?" Fred asked. 

**Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry,**

"Right! Why would he want it?"

**as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise -- unless of course it involved punching somebody.**

"He sounds like a bully. You had to live with him. That sounds horrible." Padma told Harry, sympathy in her eyes.

**Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry,**

"Wait, what? Did he punch you a lot?" Charlie asked. Harry was a bit startled that Charlie had asked that question.

"I don't know. He usually couldn't hit me because I was to fast." Harry answered nervously. This seemed to calm everyone down a bit, but not much.

Some teachers were absolutely furious, but Umbridge thought that the little liar deserved it.

**but he couldn't often catch him.**

"See?" He added nervously.

A few Slytherins were looking at Harry with interest.

 _''Oh no... am I really feeling sympathy for him?'_ Draco thought.

**Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.**

"Yeah he is. Youngest seeker in a century." George yelled. Katie, Angelina, Alicia and Fred whooped for there seeker, and the rest of Gryffindor joined.

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard,**

A few people growled at the mention of the cupboard.

**but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.**

"Yeah, you are." Ron grinned.

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's,**

"They didn't even give you new clothes?" Ginny growled. Harry scorched away from her. But all around him people were looking murderous.

**and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.**

"He's even bigger, now." _Harry_ snickered.

"But, that is not good for him. Did his parents do nothing?" Madam Pomfrey spluttered.

**Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair,**

"That's James' fault, I'm afraid." Remus laughed as he remembered his best friend.

**and bright green eyes.**

"Lily" Mcgonagall sighed sadly.

**He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape**

"Why?" Angelina asked, not sure if she really wanted to know.

**because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

She shook her head, disgusted at the way the muggles treated Harry.

**The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

"You liked your scar?" Ron asked skeptical.

"Back then, I didn't know what it actually meant. The scar made me different from other people. I thought it was a funny looking scar." Harry shrugged. "I don't like it anymore, though."

**He had had it as long as he could remember,**

"Yeah, I've had it for a long, long time." _Harry_ said.

**and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.**

"I would too." Dean put in.

**"In the car crash when your parents died,"**

"I'm sorry, what?!" Molly screamed.

Remus and Sirius were out of control. The normal calm Remus was resisting to curse something. Sirius was trying to get out of Tonks' hold so he could curse the Dursley's.

"James and Lily could never die like that." Flitwick muttered.

"They told you a lie?" Hermione asked Harry softly, as the majority of people in the Hall were screaming and yelling.

Harry shrugged. "Yeah... they did."

Ron exchanged a look with Hermione.

"Harry, what are you not telling us?" Ron asked him. Harry didn't answer.

When everyone finally calmed down, the story began again.

**she had said. "And don't ask questions."**

"How will you learn if you can't ask question." Remus snarled, still mad about what she had said.

**Don't ask questions -- that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

"But why would you want a quiet life?" Fred asked.

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon. "Comb your hair!"**

"That's not going to work." _Ron_ snickered and _Harry_ pouted as _Hermione_ laughed.

**he barked, by way of a morning greeting.**

"How nice of him." Hannah frowned.

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut.**

"Your hair grows immensely fast." Seamus nodded.

**Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together,**

"I think so, too." Neville grinned.

**but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way -- all over the place.**

Harry tried to pat his hair down which didn't work but succeeded in several Gryffindors to snort.

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon.**

"And that is not a good thing." Harry told everyone. Fred, George and Lee burst out laughing.

**He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.**

A few girls wrinkled there nose at that description. Most of the boys were laughing.

"I love your descriptions, Harry." Charlie told him, snickering.

**Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel --**

"A baby angel?"

**Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

Laughter filled the Hall. Everyone was laughing sans Mad-eye, although he looked amused, and Umbridge and Fudge, who were annoyed with the turn this story was taking.

Fred and George laughed loudest of everyone. "Pig... in... wig..." Fred said between laughter.

"Why did... we... never see this... side... of you." George managed to say. Harry just smiled.

 **Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult** **as there wasn't much room.**

"Because of all the present? How many does he get?" Justin asked.

**Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

"Why? What could possibly be bad right now?" Susan asked.

**"Thirty-six,"**

"He got thirty-six presents?!"

**he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"Oh my god. Did he really just say that?" Padma asked in disgust.

"Horrible parenting!" Sprout told McGonagall.

"Why would you want 38 presents? What could you possibly ask?" Draco wondered.

**"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's**

_Harry_ wrinkled his nose. He still hated that woman.

**present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."**

Harry rolled his eyes. "Always with the showing off."

**"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.**

"How can that not be enough?" Katie asked.

**Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

Ron nodded. "You can't go without breakfast." he said seriously.

Hermione stared at him.

"What?" He asked, when he noticed her stare. "It's the most important meal of the day." he defended somewhat feebly.

Hermione snorted, looking away from him.

"Don't worry he didn't turn it over." Harry laughed at his best friends. "Well not that day anyway." He added as an afterthought.

"You aren't telling me that he's actually turned the table over before?" Hermione questioned with a revolted look on her face.

"Does that honestly surprise you Hermione?" Harry asked.

Hermione just huffed then looked back at the book.

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right''**

"You shouldn't encourage it." Molly said.

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work.**

A lot of people laughed again.

"I'm sure it did." _Hermione_ said.

**Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty..."**

"He can't even count?" A Ravenclaw asked stupefied.

**"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

"That is way too many presents." Sprout exclaimed.

**"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

"Idiot." a few people murmured around the room.

**Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!"**

"They really don't know how to raise a child." Amelia said disgusted.

**He ruffled Dudley's hair. At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike,**

"Why would he need that?" Dean asked.

"I have no idea."

**a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.**

A lot of pureblood's looked confused but decided to ask during the break.

**He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

"What did you do, Harry?" Fred asked.

"What are you looking at me for? I didn't do anything." He answered.

**"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg.**

"Having your leg broken sucks." A Ravenclaw muggle-born said.

**She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

"Do they ever say your name?" Hannah asked.

"Not really." Harry told her.

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap.**

"Good, they both deserve that." Susan said.

**Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies.**

"That sounds fun." Dean said.

**Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away.**

"That doesn't sound fun." He said again, frowning.

**Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

"That is horrible." Ron shuddered.

**"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this.**

"Hmm, yes, I do go around plotting how to break old lady's legs and ruin my relatives' day." Harry said dramatically.

Ron sniggered.

**Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.**

Fred and George were laughing again.

"Honestly, mate, I can't even blame you." Ron laughed.

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested. "Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

"The feeling is mutual." Harry frowned. 

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there -- or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

"I don't think you're a slug!" Fred stated seriously.

"Yes, he looks more like a flobberworm." George stated just as seriously.

The Gryffindors who heard started laughing. Even Harry cracked a smile.

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend -- Yvonne?" "On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

"You always manage to make someone mad." _Hermione_ told _Harry_.

"It's a gift." _He_ grinned.

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

"That seems nice, but I don't think they will." Hannah said.

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**

"She always looks like that when she's looking at me." Harry said lightly. Ron and Hermione were not looking happy about it.

**"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

"Nah. That won't happen 'till dad gets there." Ron said, making the Weasley kids laugh and Arthur looked sheepish.

**"I won't blow up the house," said Harry,**

"Right..." Seamus grinned at his roommate.

"Oh, shut up." Harry said.

**but they weren't listening.**

"Of course they weren't." _Harry_ muttered.

**"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave him in the car...."**

"Excuse me? That is illegal. They can't do that." Hermione ranted.

"Don't worry. They didn't" Harry tried to calm her down. All around the room people were pissed. Sirius was growling and Remus was gripping the table tightly.

**"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone...."**

"Yes, I'm sure it'd be Harry's first goal to destroy the car!" Michael Corner exclaimed from the Ravenclaw table, not liking how his DA leader was being treated.

**Dudley began to cry loudly.**

"Baby." Someone from Slytherin muttered.

**In fact, he wasn't really crying -- it had been years since he'd really cried -- but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

"That horrible child. Why would anyone let this happen." Molly fussed.

"Harry, I feel sorry for you." Dean said seriously.

**"Dinky Duddydums,**

Fred, George and Lee were laughing.

**don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

"They really will give him everything." Molly frowned. "That's not how you raise a child!"

**"I... don't... want... him... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp- spoils everything!"**

"No, he doesn't." Tonks exclaimed.

**He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

"He is horrible." Remus said, disgusted.

**Just then, the doorbell rang -- "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically -- and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother.**

"Oohhhh. Here comes Harry's awesome descriptions." Fred yelled.

Harry groaned.

**Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.**

The twins burst out laughing.

**He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them.**

"Why are they all so mean?" Luna asked.

**Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

"Of course he did." _Ron_ rolled his eyes.

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck,**

"Yeah, I usually can't either. Doesn't matter if it's good luck or bad luck." Neville grinned.

**was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life.**

A few people sended pitying looks towards him.

"Well, at least you now have a real family to take to the zoo." _Hermione_ whispered to _Harry_. He smiled at her.

**His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

"What did he say?" Ginny asked angrily.

 **"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up** **close to Harry's,**

"Eww." A few girls said.

**"I'm warning you now, boy -- any funny business, anything at all -- and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

"Excuse me? That is illegal." Molly said. 

**"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly.. But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.** **The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

"Strange things always happen around Harry," Ron said.

"Thanks, mate." Harry mock glared at him.

"Anytime." Ron smiled at him.

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all,**

"That would be annoying." A random Hufflepuff said.

 **had taken a pair of kitchen scissors** **and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs,**

"Ugh, that is horrible! Why would you do something like that?"

**which she left "to hide that horrible scar."**

"That's horrible!" Ginny said disgusted.

**Dudley had laughed himself silly** **at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.**

The students and teachers looked at Harry in interest. The still couldn't believe that the Boy-Who-Lived was treated like that! They actually felt sorry for him.

**Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it** **had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off**

The Weasley twins were laughing their asses off.

"Serves them right!" Hermione said.

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this,**

The laughter died and turned into anger.

**even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

"Accidental magic! You can't punish that!" McGonagall said.

"They can." _Harry_ said.

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls) --**

"Ugh." Lavender said. "That's revolting!"

**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet,**

"Nice job!" George said as he and Fred high five Harry.

**but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

"That's good." Seamus said with a frown.

Remus was having trouble to calm Sirius down.

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.**

"Oh no!" Hermione groaned.

**Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when,**

Ginny gripped the arms of her chair tightly.

**as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

"Wait, what? How did you do that?" Hermione asked confused.

Harry looked at her for a moment. "With... magic?" He answered, also confused. Wasn't that oblivious?

"That's not what I mean." She sighed.

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings.**

"But he hadn't!" Neville said annoyed.

**But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard)**

Ginny gripped her chair tighter as Mrs. Weasley's temper rose.

**was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid- jump.**

"So... you apperated?" Seamus asked. Hermione looked at Harry again, confused.

"That or I flew somehow." He shrugged.

It as silent for a second as everyone looked at Harry in wonder.

"What?" he finally asked, annoyed by all the looks he got.

"Its just... pretty advanced magic for accidental, Harry. Most wizards wouldn't be able to do it." Tonks said.

"That's what I meant." Hermione said, referring to their conversation a minute back.

"I don't think even Dumbledore was able to do it when he was your age." Mad-eye grunted.

Students and teachers were looking at Harry in wonder. He just looked uncomfortable by it.

Umbridge was fuming. She was done with the good publicity this boy was getting by these books.

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong.**

"I'd say something does go wrong." said Neville.

"What makes you say that?" Harry asked innocently.

"Before you are always causing trouble," replied Neville.

"I don't cause trouble. Trouble just seems to find me." said Harry defending himself.

"Sure sure."

**It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

"So it was that bad?" Fred asked.

Harry didn't answer.

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia.**

"Oh great." Ginny rolled her eyes.

**He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects.**

"Now, I could be wrong,-" Fred began.

"-but I think he likes to complain about you, Harry." George finished.

"How did you get that idea?" He mumbled.

**This morning, it was motorcycles.**

Padfoot got excited at the mention of that.

**"... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.**

"Oh, stop complaining." Seamus groaned.

**I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

"Harry..." _Hermione_ groaned.

"Yeah, yeah. I know." _Harry_ smiled. "Not my best moment."

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front.**

"Excuse me?" Madame Pompfrey glared. He could have killed everyone in that car!

**He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"**

"Yeah, they do."

"In our world, anyway."

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

"Oh, shut up!" Charlie growled.

**I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."**

"No, it wasn't." McGonagall whispered.

**But he wished he hadn't said anything.**

"Then don't." Draco tried to be snarky. It didn't really work.

**If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon --**

"That's boring." Bill frowned.

**they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

"Harry, get dangerous ideas?" Neville asked, sniggering. "Who'd have ever thought it possible?"

"I have no idea." Harry sarcastically said.

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families.**

A few people smiled, lost in memories.

**The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.**

"That's... nice?" Neville tried to cheer Harry up, who still looked pretty down.

**It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

Laughter filled the hall.

"Good one, Harry." George said between laughs.

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time.**

Hermione clenched her teeth.

**He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him.**

The rest of Harry's friends and most of the adults joined Hermione.

**They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top,**

"They raised him to be spoiled!." Molly shook her head.

**Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.**

"Well, at least you got that." Ron tried, even though he was just as pissed as everyone else. ****

**Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

"I have that feeling a lot." _Harry_ said.

**After lunch they went to the reptile house.**

"That's my favorite part of the zoo." A first year said.

 **It was cool and dark in** **there,**

"A bit like the Slytherin common room." _Harry_ whispered to _Ron_ and _Hermione_.

**with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts** **of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone.**

Parvati shivered. She hated snakes!

**Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons.**

"That's hard to find in a zoo." Terry Boot frowned.

**Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place.**

"Of course he did."

**It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can --**

"Cool!" Dennis Creevy yelled.

**but at the moment it didn't look in** **the mood.**

"Buzzkill." Fred yelled.

**In fact, it was fast asleep.** **Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.** **"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

"Let him sleep." Luna frowned.

**"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

"Merlin, can they be any worse?"

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.** **Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself --**

"That would be sad." Luna said again.

**no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long.**

"Well... when you put it like that..." Someone said, clearly uncomfortable.

**It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

Hermione looked at him in sympathy.

"Mate, you know you're comparing yourself with a snake, right?" Ron tried to hold his laughter.

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.**

"That is super creepy." Hannah said.

**It winked.**

"Snakes don't normally wink, do they?" asked a Hufflepuff third year. "Wait, do they even have eyelids?"

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

Ron burst out laughing.

"Cut me some slack, Ron." An embarrassed Harry said. "I was ten."

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:** **"I get that all the time."**

"This is creepy. How do you know what that snake means. Why is it even communicating with you?" A boy from Ravenclaw said.

Harry just shrugged. They'd find out later. 

**"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

Ron looked like he was about to laugh again, when Harry poked him in his ribs.

**The snake nodded vigorously.**   
**"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

"Just a normal day, Harry talking with a snake." Fred snickered.

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.** **Boa Constrictor, Brazil. "Was it nice there?"**

Ron looked over at him. "You're talking to a snake. About Brazil. How did you not notice that it wasn't normal?"

Harry sighed. "I don't know. I was lonely, and I guess strange things happened to me so I was used to it."

"Honestly." Hermione muttered fondly.

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see -- so you've never been to Brazil?"**

"Oh Merlin, Harry." Remus said fondly.

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump.**

"What? What is it?" Molly asked.

**"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE**   
**WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

"Oh no..." Neville groaned.

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.**

"So... as fast as a slug?"

**"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.**

Sirius growled.

**Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened --**

"What? What did you do?" George asked excited.

**one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

"Just tell us!" Fred screamed.

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.**

"Awesome!" Colin and Dennis Creevey yelled.

McGonagall was looking over at Harry. "Impressive, Potter." she said, looking at him over her small glasses. "Why can't you manage that in my classes?"

"Haven't got a snake to talk to in your classes, Professor." Harry answered her, grinning.

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

"I would too." Parvati said.

"I think everyone would." Hannah added.

"Nah, Harry wouldn't." Seamus grinned.

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come.... Thanksss, amigo."**

"Why would you be able to hear a snake?" a first year Hufflepuff asked.

"Because he's a Parselmouth?" _Ron_ said as if it was obvious.

Before anyone could react, Umbridge jumped up and pointed an accusing finger at Harry.

"There is your prove. He's a Parselmouth! He is evil."

Harry felt a lump of rage built up in his chest. He was about to say something when he was interrupted.

"Are you kidding me?!" _Hermione_ raged. "Yes, he is a Parselmouth, and he has never attacked anyone, but that doesn't matter to you! Of course you would think he is evil, because when something happens in our world, it's Harry's fault! You don't want to confront your fears, so you push it on Harry. You have been doing this since he was a child! And after all this time, you should have figured out that you were wrong!"

 _Harry_ stood up and whispered something in her ear which made her stop.

A lot of people looked shocked.

"Well, go on then." _Ron_ said annoyed.

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**   
**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

"Magic..." Fred said.

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber.**

"Serves them right!" Hannah said.

**As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed,**

"That's good. They didn't get hurt but they did get a scare." Bill said.

"Great memories." _Harry_ sighed, smiling.

Those around him laughed at the comment.

 **but by the time they were** **all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.**

"Drama queen." Ron rolled his eyes.

**But worst of all, for Harry at least,**

"Oh no." Remus whispered.

**was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

Many people groaned at that.

"Of course rat-boy gets you in trouble!" Ron snapped.

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak.**

The Weasley twins snorted at the image.

**He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals,"**

"Excuse me?" Hermione asked dangerously.

"How could they? Starvation is not a punishment?!" Madame Pomfrey raged.

There was a lot of screaming. Both the Harry's plugged their fingers in their ears until it was over.

"Harry, why didn't you say anything?" Hermione whispered.

"Can we please just continue?" He asked while trying to calm down Sirius.

**before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

"Ugh, he treats her like some sort of servant!" Ginny said disgusted.

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch.**

People were sending Harry looks of sympathy.

Arthur Weasley was a man that didn't get angry much. Especially with muggles, but these made his blood boil.

Remus knew that from now on he didn't get the temptation to kill the muggles at full moon, and that he had to stop Sirius from doing so.

Fred and George, the prankster, were thinking of new toffee's for the family who hurt their little brother.

**He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen** **for some food.**

Hermione grabbed Harry's hand and tried to fight the tears which were starting to flow.

 **He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as**   **long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash.**

Harry looked away. He wanted this nightmare to stop. He wanted it to be over!

McGonagall seemed to sense this and didn't say anything, but she would never let this go.

This boy, the Boy-Who-Lived, the one who had suffered so much, had suffered more than she had thought.

**He couldn't remember being in the car when** **his parents had died.**

"That's because there isn't one." Bill said sadly.

**Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard,**

Sirius was growling.

**he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.**

"You... you remember that?" stammered McGonagall, looking over at her student in disbelief.

Harry shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with the so many pairs of eyes fixed on him. "More clearly now." he answered softly, a hint of agony entering his voice for the first time.

**This, he supposed, was the crash,**

"It wasn't." _Harry_ said while shaking his head sadly. ****

**though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from.**

Harry absentmindedly rubbed his scar.

**He couldn't remember his parents at all.**

Hannah was crying. No one deserved to life like that. And definitely not Harry.

**His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

"That's horrible." Tonks said in a small voice.

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away,**

"I would too, mate." Ron signed.

 _Harry_ looked at him, and Hermione, old and young _,_ and the remaining Weasley's. To Remus and Sirius and the rest of the Order of the Phoenix. To the members of the DA and smiled.

"I have a new family now, and they did rescue me." _He_ said softly.

**but it had never happened; the** **Dursleys were his only family.**

All of the Weasleys and Hermione scoffed, glaring at Harry.

"We're your family mate," Ron said sincerely.

"I know, Ron." Harry said smiling at his best friend.

**Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him.**

"Wizards?" Hermione asked and Harry nodded.

**Very strange strangers** **they were, too.**

"I would thinks so." Hermione laughed.

**A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley.**

"Bowed?" Fred grinned along with George.

Harry groaned.

**After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything.**

Laughter rang through the Hall.

**A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word.**

"Smooth." Dean laughed.

**The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.**

"That's rude. Apperating away before Harry could see them." Lisa Turpin said frowning. Her fellow Ravenclaws nodded in agreement.

"Didn't that get annoying?" Neville asked.

"You have no idea." Harry replied.

**At school, Harry had no one.**

The mood drooped again, and people were glaring at the book.

**Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

 

 


	4. Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They take a break from reading when someone shows up to continue with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy too long. I'm so sorry! I've been busy with some other fics, but I'm working on the next chapter now! I hope it will be on here soon, depends on my school work....

 

"Well..." Mcgonagall started. Most of the students looked down from what they had just read. She looked at the clock. "Why don't we take a break and have lunch?" she suggested. The teachers and Fudge agreed, so the the chairs disappeared to make room for the four long tables again. 

The tables filled with food, but Harry, Hermione and, miraculously, Ron weren't hungry. They wanted answers. 

"Could we talk to you?" Harry asked their older selves. _They_  shared a glance and then told them to follow. Harry felt the stares on his back as the six of them walked out of the Great Hall. 

"What do you think about them?" Tonks asked the Order who were sitting around her at the Gryffindor table as soon as she saw them walk out. 

"About their future selves?" Remus raised an eyebrow and sighed. "I think we can expect some heavy days. Especially those three..." 

The Weasley's looked down and Padfoot began whining. 

"What do you think happened?" Bill asked. "I mean, I don't know if you noticed, but they looked... _broken_."

"We can only guess..." Mr. Weasley shook his head. 

* * *

 _Harry_ stopped a few meters from the doors away, and turned back to the others. There was a silence as the younger kids studied their older selves. 

"This is so weird..." Ron said. 

"What happened?" Harry asked and looked up to them in hope but also dread. 

 _They_ shared another glance and _Hermione_ spoke up. "We can't say. I don't know if these books will tell the future, but we can't tell you what happens."

The teens were silent for a minute until Hermione broke it. "Is it that bad?"

 _Harry_ sighed. "Going by how far your life has been so far, did you expect something else?" he asked. "But, after everything is done, it will be worth it."

* * *

After taking their place at the table again, the trio began to guess what would be in the books. 

"Well, I'm guessing everything about our journey for the stone." Harry said. 

"Yeah, maybe Halloween? That was pretty important." Hermione thoughtfully added. 

"Do you think they'll put in the quidditch matches?" Ron suddenly grinned. Fred, George, Ginny, Neville, Dean and Seamus, who had been listing, looked confused. 

"Why?" Fred asked. 

"Well, the first match was very interesting." Ron laughed. Harry and Hermione caught on that he was talking about Hermione setting Snape on fire. 

"Oh! That would be amazing if they put that in!" Harry grinned. "But, I wasn't exactly there. I was hanging in the air." 

"I hope they don't put it in! You know in how much trouble I could be in?" Hermione looked nervous. 

"Come on, 'Mione. They made a deal that you can't be punished for your past actions. Besides, this won't be thinly thing we could be in trouble for." Harry said, as their friends still had no idea what they were talking about. "I mean we trespassed quite a few rules these last few years. _Especially_ in second an third!"

"Yeah, I guess that's true." she mumbled and Ron laughed. 

"I can't wait to see everyone's faces when they find out you're just as much of a rule breaker as us." he grinned. "Just look at second year with the potion."

"Hey, you took part in that as much as I did." 

"Yes, but they expect it from us." Harry also laughed. 

Fred, George, Ginny, Neville, Dean and Seamus watch this exchange in wonder. "What are you talking about?" Seamus finally asked. 

"Oh, nothing..." Harry told them. 

"Well, at least we'll finally find out what really happened in the Chamber." Hermione then told Harry with a stern look. 

"What do you mean? I already told you what happened." Harry said. 

"Yep, and we still don't believe that's all that happened." Ron filled his plate again. 

"I'm guessing we should give mom some calming tea these next few books?" George asked. 

"I think so."

* * *

"What do you think so far?" Sprout asked McGonagall. She looked to the green eyed boy and sighed. 

"I think there is a lot we didn't know about Harry. Specifically about what he went through." her gaze turned to Umbridge. "And I hope that something good will at least come out of it..."

Suddenly, the doors of the Hall opened, and in walked Albus Dumbledore. It took a moment, but when everyone understood it was actually him, the DA jumped up an cheered him on.

"ARREST HIM." Umbridge screeched. A note appeared in front of the Aurors.

**Remember, no one can get arrested while we read.**

Tonks grinned and read it out loud. Nobody made a move as Dumbledore walked to the High Table and took his place.

Fudge was looking very surprised and Umbridge was fuming.

"We can't arrest him, minister. But you might want to tell us how you came in, and why." Kingsley Shacklebolt asked Dumbledore.

"I'm the headmaster. I have my ways, and just like you, I have come to read about young mister Potter." He smiled at him. "I got a note too. The person who send it seemed to think I should be here too. He also informed me at the quite unusual guest." His twinkling eyes drifted to the future trio, who grinned at him.

Umbridge was about to protest, but Fudge stopped her. "Fine, but we will keep our eye on you, Dumbledore."

"That's fine by me. Why don't we continue where you left?"

 


	5. Letters From No One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're reading Letters From No One

After everyone finished eating and got over the shock of Dumbledore suddenly arriving, the book began read again.

**THE LETTERS FROM NO ONE**

"From no one? What does that mean? Is that your Hogwarts letters?" Justin asked. Harry nodded and grinned.

"That is a fun memory."

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment.**

"They exactly went through with locking you up?" mrs Weasley asked.

"Well... it wasn't like they had never done it before." Harry told her, which did not seem to help. A few adults and students glared at Dumbledore, but didn't say anything. They didn't want to give Umbridge that satisfaction.

**By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started**

"That's way too long!" George exclaimed.

"Yeah, no wonder you're such a scrawny git!" Fred finished.

**and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time** **out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

"How? Even Tonks wouldn't be able to do that." Charlie said amazed.

"Hey!"

**Harry was glad school was over,**

"Who isn't?" Seamus snorted.

"Hermione." Harry said as she gave him a light smack on his arm.

**but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day.**

"I don't know why you would want to see Dudley everyday." Harry rolled his eyes as Ron, Fred, George and Lee snorted.

**Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid,**

"How nice of you to say." a Gryffindor grinned.

**but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

"Because that makes so much sense." Susan rolled her eyes.

"I don't see Crabbe or Goyle being leader of their little group." _Ron_ snickered.

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favorite sport: Harry Hunting.**

Ginny and Hermione looked furious. The boys around her scooted away from them a little, making a mental note to not pick a fight with them.

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house,**

"I don't blame you. It's way too clean." Tonks said and Harry laughed.

**wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays,** **where he could see a tiny ray of hope.**

Fred and George gasped loudly.

"Why would you think of that?"Ron asked horrified. "Are you turning into Hermione?"

"What's wrong with that, Ronald?" Hermione raised an eyebrow and Fred and George laughed as Ron tried to explain himself, failing miserably.

**When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be** **with Dudley.**

"Okay, I guess that makes sense." George told Harry.

"We forgive you." Fred finished.

**Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings.**

"That doesn't sound like a great school." a third year Hufflepuff said.

"And Hogwarts does?" someone retorted.

**Piers Polkiss was going there too.**

"He reminds me of Pettigrew." _Ron_ muttered to his friends. "Always following your cousin."

"And he has a face like a rat." _Harry_ said disgusted.

**Harry, on the** **other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudley thought this was very funny.**

"Why would he think it's funny?" Hannah asked curiously.

Harry groaned. "Don't ask me to work out what's going on in Dudley's thick skull." he replied in a long suffering voice.

**"They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"**

"He didn't!" Hermione exclaimed.

**"No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it -- it might be sick."**

The Hall burst out laughing. Even the Slytherin's and some of the adults couldn't fight it.

"Merlin! That was amazing!" Charlie choked out.

"You are definitely going pranking with us!" Fred yelled as tears rolled down his cheeks.

McGonagall groaned. The Weasley twins and Harry Potter going pranking was definitely not a good thing!

**Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

"You ran away?" _Ron_ asked confused. "Since when do you run away?"

"Since he was four times bigger than me." _Harry_ snickered.

"That hasn't stopped you before." _Hermione_ rolled her eyes, leaving the people around them who heard wondering what they were talking about.

Harry studied _them_. He would have thought it was impossible, but it seemed like they were even closer than they already were. What happened that caused that?

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual.**

"Even if she was her usual self, I would _not_ have gone to London with them." Harry said.

**It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats,** **and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before.**

A few students laughed again.

"That makes sense."

**She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

"Food is food, and nearly all food is good." said Ron solemnly, as though he were swearing an oath. **  
**

"Yes, we all know how you're addicted to food, Ron." Ginny sighed.

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats,**

Ron frowned at the description. Perhaps it had something to do with the mention of the colour maroon, a colour that he seemed to have an aversion to. **  
**

**orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters.**

"That's just horrible!" Parvati said.

**They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking.**

"Why would they do that?" Sprout asked.

**This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

"How?" Dean looked lost. "How is that good training?"

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life.**

"I wouldn't want to be caught dead in that!"

**Aunt Petunia burst** **into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins,**

A few students snorted at the nickname.

**he looked so handsome and grown-up.**

"Somehow, I find that hard to believe." Susan said.

**Harry didn't trust himself to speak.**

"Cuz you might cough up a frog?" Fred asked. Everyone turned their head to the boy.

"What?"

**He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.**

"Ahh. Okay, that makes more sense."

"How where you able to keep a straight face?" Ron asked incredulous.

"Self-control, Ronald." Hermione said.

"Something we know, you don't have." George finished.

"Oi!"

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast.**

"No! That will ruin the breakfast!" a Hufflepuff boy said.

**It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look.**

"Of course you did." Ginny smiled.

**The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water.**

**"What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.**

"YOU ASKED A QUESTION!" Lee Jordan yelled and pointed his fingers at Harry accusingly.

"HOW DARE YOU!" George played along.

**"Your new school uniform," she said.**

"A school uniform? Why is it in water?" Ron asked.

**Harry looked in the bowl again.** **"Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."**

The Hall burst out laughing again.

Ron snorted. "You are such a little shit sometimes, you know that?"

"Since when are you this sarcastic?" Tonks laughed.

**"Don't be stupid,"**

"He's not the one being stupid."

**snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."**

"Somehow, I doubt that." Bill said.

**Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue.**

"That's a first." _Hermione_ joked.

"Very funny."

**He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High -- like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

Ron cast a sympathetic look at his best friend.

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform.**

"Or they just saw me." Harry said without thinking. He looked up to see quite a few students and adults looking at him in shock. "I'm kidding!"

**Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual** **and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere,** **on the table.**

"Just like a three year old being entertained by a shiny new toy," Seamus said brightly, grinning.

Everyone who heard struggled to hide their snorts, with Fred and George failing brilliantly.

**They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.**

"Here it comes!"

**"Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

"Did he just ask _Dudley_ to get it?" Ron asked.

**"Make Harry get it." "Get the mail, Harry."** **"Make Dudley get it."**

"Did you really think that would work?"

"Not really, but it was worth a try."

**"Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."**

"No, don't do that!" Luna frowned.

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick**

"As Oliver would say, a true Seeker." Fred pretended to wipe away a tear.

**and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge,**

Harry let out a puff of air. He still hated that woman. ****

**who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a** **bill, and -- a letter for Harry.**

"Your Hogwarts letter!" someone from the Hufflepuff table shouted gleefully.

Harry grinned.

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him.**

Hermione smiled at him.

"Well, now you do!"

**Who would?**

"Ginny would." said Fred innocently, looking at his sister.

Ginny attempted to hit her brother, but Fred dodged it, continuing to grin as Ginny blushed a deep red.

**He had no friends, no other relatives --**

"Yes you do!" Remus said and Padfoot whined as Hermione and the Weasley's grinned at him.

"I know."

**he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back.**

A few students snorted.

"Of course you would think that." Hermione muttered fondly.

**Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

**Mr. H. Potter**

**The Cupboard under the Stairs**

**4 Privet Drive**

**Little Whinging**

**Surrey**

"It's actually pretty creepy. How do you know all of that? And if you knew this, why didn't you do anything about this?" a Ravenclaw first year old asked.

"It's self addressed, we don't see the envelopes. All I do is sign the letters and make sure that the people that have become Prefect or any other leader, has the necessary information and then they are all self backed. Can you imagine me writing all those letters?" McGonagall said and frowned. "But I think this does show us a flaw."

Dumbledore nodded. They should look into that.

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp.**

"Well, you don't need one for owl post."

"I know that _now_."

**Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling,**

A few girls send him pitying looks.

**Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion,**

"Gryffindor!" roared Fred and George over the cheers from the Gryffindor table.

**an eagle,**

"Ravenclaw!" yelled the Ravenclaw students.

**a badger,**

Cheers from the Hufflepuffs rose to the ceiling.

**and a snake**

A boy from the Slytherin table looked around and saw that no one was going to cheer, so he punched his fist into the air a few times while whooping. This caused a few people to laugh and join.

**surrounding a large letter H.**

"Hogwarts!" Dennis Creevey said excitedly.

Angelina, who was sat next to him, patted him on the head wearily.

" _Someone_ fed him too much sugar!" she told the others over Dennis' hyper squeals, sending a pointed glare to the twins and Lee, who grinned sheepishly.

Umbridge was getting very annoyed. That brat shouldn't be laughing. They should find out the truth, that he is a liar!

**"Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.**

'Wow." Lee said, rather dramatically.

"Yeah, that was so funny!" George continued, his expression and voice saying otherwise.

"So funny I forgot to laugh!' Fred finished, pretending to slap the table in amusement.

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope.**

"Why didn't you open it in the hall?" Terry frowned.

"It was my first letter. I was in shock, I hadn't expected them to actually take it from me." Harry explained.

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard.**

**"Marge's ill,"**

"Can't say I feel sorry for her." _Harry_ muttered, still not liking her.

**he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk. --." "Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"**

"No..." the Hall groaned.

"Does he have to ruin everything?" Charlie asked.

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.**

"OI!" someone from further up the Gryffindor table shouted. **  
**

**"That's mine!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back.** **"Who'd be writing to you?"**

"Only the whole wizard world?" Neville frowned. "By the way, you said that this was your first letter." he turned to Harry.

"It was, why?" he looked confused.

"Well, what happened to all that fan mail and thank you notes?" Neville asked again.

"What? I never got those, why would I?" Harry jolted back as a few of his friends began to laugh.

"I know they were send. My grandma and her friends all send one, I'm certain of it!" Neville told him and others agreed.

"I didn't think it was wise to give him those. Can you imagine receiving all those letters before you can even talk?" Dumbledore asked. "I still have them, though, if you want them. It's quite a lot though." he added with a smile.

"I think I'm fine." Harry answered with a small voice while Ron and Hermione laughed.

**sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it.**

"Give that back! It's not yours!" Susan spat out.

**His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights.**

"Cool!"

**And it didn't stop there. Within seconds** **it was the grayish white of old porridge.**

"It's a letter, not the end of the world." Draco sneered.

"To them, it's the same thing." Harry said.

**"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.**

"Drama queen." someone muttered.

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach.**

"Yeah, he shouldn't get it. It's Harry's letter." Alicia gritted her teeth.

**Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

"Is she choking to death?" Ernie asked hopefully.

"Unfortunately, no." Harry grinned ruefully.

**"Vernon! Oh my goodness -- Vernon!"**

"Oh my goodness! They know each other's name!" Fred mocked with a squeaky voice.

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored.**

"Oh, poor Dinky Duddydums." Hermione rolled her eyes. A few students looked surprised at Hermione Granger mocking someone.

**He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

"Pfftt. We should try that." George said.

"Yeah, we would be grounded for life." Ron finished.

"With a good reason." Mrs. Weasley said with a piercing look.

**"I want to read that letter," he said loudly.**

"Why should he? It's not his!"

" _ **I**_ **want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's mine."**

"I sense Harry's temper is rising." Ron stage whispered to Hermione across the table.

Harry whacked Ron on the arm.

**"Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope.**

"He doesn't have any right to do that!" Susan exclaimed annoyed.

**Harry didn't move.**

"Any minute now." Ron murmured to Hermione, who tried desperately to stifle her giggles.

**I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.**

"And there we have it." said Fred in a commentator's voice, keeping a straight face.

"Harry Potter's temper!" George said in the exact same voice as his twin, his expression identical.

Ron and Hermione sniggered as Harry rolled his eyes.

**"Let me see it!" demanded Dudley.**

"You don't have anything to demand!"

**"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall,**

It was lucky that looks couldn't kill, Harry mused to himself, or else the book's ashes would have ignited by now.

**slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole;**

"Who would win, I wonder?" someone sarcastically asked.

**Dudley won, so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at** **the crack between door and floor.**

"It's not like you would have a problem at lying on your stomach." Fred grinned. "You're small enough."

**"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address -- how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"**

"Yep, we've got an entire army set aside _just_ to watch you!" Lee sniggered.

**"Watching -- spying -- might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

"Is he some sort of lunatic, or something?" Neville asked, weirded out.

"How could you possibly think that?" Harry laughed.

**"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want --"**

"We'd sent someone to check." Sprout frowned.

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.** **"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer... Yes, that's best... we won't do anything...."**

"Idiot." there was some muttering.

**"But --"** **"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"**

"Excuse me?" Hermione screeched. The whole Hall looked shocked.

"What do they mean, _stamp out_?" McGonagall questioned, staring straight at Harry.

Harry shifted slightly. "They were under the impression that if they kept me as miserable as possible, the magic would simply... disappear." he answered smoothly, flicking his black fringe out of his eyes. "They weren't exactly fond of magic."

The Hall looked shocked at this and Amelia Bones began writing on a parchment about all the things these Muggles could be sued for.

McGonagall glared at Dumbledore who nodded. As soon as they were done, he would have to find a solution for the protection given by Harry's aunt. McGonagall would kill him if he still left Harry at the Dursley's.

"It's fine, can we just continue?" Harry mumbled.

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.**

"Did it even fit?" Ron asked, trying to cheer his best mate up.

"Not really." Harry grinned at the memory. "I believe he couldn't get anything past his neck through the door."

**"Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?"**

"Our whole world." Fred grinned.

**"No one. it was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned it."**

"What? Isn't that illegal?"

**"It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it."**

"Yeah! They're just being a bunch of di-"

"BILL WEASLEY!" Ms. Weasley cut in before he could finish and snickers filled the Hall.

**"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling.**

_Ron_ shuddered and _Harry_ tried to fight a snort. After everything they went through, he was _still_ afraid of spiders.

**He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

"I'm sure it was."

**"Er -- yes, Harry -- about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking...**

"You can think?" Harry gasped with mock surprise, much to the amusement of those around him.

**you're really getting a bit big for it... we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom.**

"Second... bedroom?" Hermione breathed heavily, slowly turning her piercing gaze on the book.

Sensing danger, Harry scooted his chair away from Hermione as far as he could.

At the High Table, McGonagall was acting in a similar way, staring angrily at the book with daggers in her eyes.

Remus clutched the table until his hands turned white. He should have been there for Harry...

**"Why?" said Harry.**

"Why are you questioning it? Shouldn't you be happy they gave you a bigger bedroom?" Justin asked curiously.

"I was suspicious." Harry said without hesitation. "There had to be a catch of some sort."

**"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now."**

"Which didn't take long." Harry mumbled.

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms:**

" _Four bedrooms?"_ Hermione said, deceptively calm, which was the danger sign. "And yet you were in a _cupboard?"_ She was breathing fast again, and colour was beginning to spread along her cheeks.

Everyone near her scooted away from her, sensing her temper was rising again.

**one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom.**

" _Two bedrooms_..." Ms. Weasley trailed off, unable to speak coherently.

The adults looked appalled at the idea.

**It only took Harry one trip** **upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room.**

"Wow, that really sucks." Seamus winced.

**He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken.**

"Then why didn't they throw it out?" a Ravenclaw seventh year asked, but was answered with shrugs.

**The month-old video camera**

"He only had it for a month?" Lisa Turpin shook her head. **  
**

**was lying on top of a small,** **working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbor's dog;**

"How?" someone asked amazed.

**in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been canceled;**

"Wow... He's got a bad temper."

**there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent** **because Dudley had sat on it.**

Many people snorted, Fred and George the loudest of them all.

**Other shelves were full of books.**

"Books? Does he even know how to read?" Ron frowned.

**They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.**

"Ah, that explains it."

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, I don't want him in there... I need that room... make him get out...."**

"Why did he need that room? From that description, everything, except books were broken. Why didn't they just thrown the junk out?" Neville questioned.

"I don't know, but most of the stuff did go in the bin once I moved in there. I secretly threw out anything that was rubbish or that I couldn't fix." said Harry.

**Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.**

People sent sad glances his way, all of which Harry pointedly ignored.

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock.**

"Because he didn't get what he wanted? He really is horrible." Parvati said, disgusted.

**He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back.**

"How did he get away with that?" Hermione looked thunderstruck.

"Because he's a little angel in my aunt and uncle's eyes."

**Harry was** **thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.**

"Oh Merlin! You'd think they could act normal."

**When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it.**

"I wonder why." Hermione said darkly, she seemed to be in a bad mood.

**They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall.**

"Ugh, I'm so sick of hearing of him." someone from the Slytherin table groaned.

**Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive --'"**

"GET IT!" multiple people screamed.

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him.**

"GO HARRY!"

**Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact** **that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind.**

"Yeah, go Harry! You get that old killer whale!" Fred laughed.

"You have a habit of wrestling larger creatures than yourself, you know that." _Ron_ remarked to _Harry_ , an amused expression on his face.

 _Harry_ and _Hermione_ grinned in response, but Remus, who heard, looked worried.

"What are you talking about?" he asked and suddenly, the three were looking away, and the two boys whistling innocently. Remus groaned.

**After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath,**

"Of course he was gasping for breath!" _Harry_ commented casually. "Most he's done in his whole _life_!"

Snickers surrounded him.

**with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.**

A few students insulted him, to which the teachers scolded them for using such words.

**"Go to your cupboard -- I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley -- go -- just go."**

"They don't even sent him to his room?" Ginny frowned.

 **Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure** **they didn't fail. He had a plan.** **  
**

"This should be good!" Ron laughed and Harry pouted. **  
**

"Why are you laughing?" Hannah asked.

"Harry's plan seem to backfire on him a lot." Hermione smiled.

"And, even though you sometimes have some great ideas, you can also have horrible ones." Ron snorted.

"Oh shush." Harry mumbled.

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning.**

Fred and George groaned at how early. 

**Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.**

"So that's where you learned to sneak around." Seamus grinned. 

**He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first.**

"Okay, that could work." Ron admitted. **  
**

**His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door --** " **AAAAARRRGH!"** **Harry leapt into the air;**

"And there it goes, backfiring on you." Ron laughed.

**he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat -- something alive!**

"What was it?" an exited first year asked.

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face.**

Laughter filled the Hall again.

"Classic!" Fred managed to say between laughs.

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making** **sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do.**

Ginny muttered something that made the twins burst out laughing and she was glad her mom hadn't heard.

**He** **shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea.**

"Ugh! They are really horrible! How did you survive this?" Dean asked.

**Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the** **time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap.**

"Too late." Tonks sighed.

 **Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink. "** **I want --" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes.**

Everyone glared at the book.

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot.**

"You think that's gonna work?" Mad-eye grunted.

**"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver them they'll just give up."**

"We wouldn't have given up!" Flitwick said.

**"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."**

"It won't."

**"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways,**

"Hey!"

**Petunia, they're not like you and me,"**

"Thank Merlin for that!" Ron said.

**said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

The Hall erupted in laughter again.

"Yeah, and our minds work in strange ways?" Angelica rolled her eyes.

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry.**

Fred and George cheered. 

**As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom.**

"Hmm, what'd you know? There really is an army watching them!" Padma sniggered to Terry, who was grinning. **  
**

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters,**

A few people growled at that.

**he got** **out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and** **back doors so no one could go out.**

"So, they wouldn't be able to get any food or stuff?"

**He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

"Paranoid, much?"

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand.**

"This is going to be fun." Lee grinned. 

**Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window.**

Fred and George fell to the ground laughing. Dumbledore chuckled. That had been fun to do...

**While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone** **to complain to,**

"That won't work." Lee said with a sing song voice.

**Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor.**

"Why won't you just let him read them?" Colin asked frustrated.

**"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.**

"Loads of people, actually." Fred said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah." George continued. "Especially Ginny."

Ginny reached across and succeeded in slapping her older brother.

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

"I'm guessing that's not a good thing." Micheal said.

**"No post on Sundays,"**

"Yes there is." a confused pureblood said.

"Not in the Muggle world." his friend explained.

**he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers,**

"He is mental." Ron stated and Harry agreed.

**"no damn letters today --"** **Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head.**

"What was it?!" Dean asked excited.

**Next moment, thirty or forty** **letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets.**

"THAT IS BRILLIANT!" Fred yelled.

"WE SHOULD DO THAT FOR OUR NEXT PRANK!" George agreed and they jumped up on the table.

"FRED, GEORGE, SIT DOWN!" their mom yelled.

**The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one.**

"Why didn't you just pick one off the ground and hide it under your shirt for later?" Hermione asked.

"Give me a break I was ten. Besides, I'm a Seeker, what do you expect?"

**"Out! OUT!"** **Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall.**

"Don't touch him!" a few people growled.

**When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.**

"How many were sent?" someone asked and the turned their head to McGonagall.

"I have no idea. Professor Dumbledore took over after the first time." everyone turned their head to Dumbledore, who was smiling mysteriously.

**"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his mustache at the same time.**

"That must have looked handsome."

**I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"**

"He really lost it, didn't he." _Ron_ chuckled.

**He looked so dangerous with half his mustache missing that no one dared argue.**

"How did you not burst out laughing?" Seamus asked.

"Willpower. A lot of it." Harry returned his grin.

**Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.**

"Good." said George approvingly. "Serves him right!" **  
**

**They drove. And they drove.**

"Where did you go?" a Hufflepuff sixth year asked.

"If you stopped talking, we would actually find out." His friend told him.

**Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going.**

"I would be scared too."

**Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while. "Shake 'em off... shake 'em** **off," he would mutter whenever he did this.**

"He is way too paranoid." Hermione rolled her eyes.

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day.**

Madam Pomfrey scowled, looking critically at where Harry was sat. He looked too skinny for her liking.

**By nightfall Dudley was howling.** **He'd never had such a bad day in his life.**

"Aww, poor baby!" said Alicia in a mocking baby voice.

"Welcome to Harry's life!" Angelina added.

**He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

Professor Sprout shook her head in disgust. "Horrid boy." she scowled. **  
**

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets.**

"Ugh..." a few people groaned.

**Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering....**

"About what?" someone asked.

"No idea, this was four years ago. Probably the letters." Harry answered, massaging his temples.

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day.**

"That's not a breakfast! That's not even a snack!" Ron howled. Hermione stared at him. "What?"

**They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.**

"What did you do now?" _Ron_ teased.

**"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred** **of these at the front desk."**

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:**

**Mr. H. Potter**

**Room 17**

**Railview Hotel**

**Cokeworth**

"This is genius!" someone yelled over the laughter.

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way.**

"Just give it to Harry!"

**The woman stared.** **"I'll take them,"**

"No, you'll burn them."

 **said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room. "** **Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly,**

"Yes. It's not like it's working." Padma said.

**hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her.**

"Or he just ignored her." Tonks frowned.

**Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again.**

"He is so weird."

**The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage.**

**"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?"**

"Nah, he already was." George said.

**Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon. Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared.** **It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley sniveled.**

"I have no sympathy for him." Alicia snarled.

**"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television. "**

"Not everything is about you!" Lee exclaimed.

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday -- and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television --**

A few people snorted.

"Of course you could." Hermione rolled her eyes.

**then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday.**

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Fred, George and Lee shouted.

"It's not my birthday now, guys." Harry said, pointing to the book and grinned. "It's ages off."

**Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun -- last year, the Dursleys** **had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.**

"Those aren't presents!" Remus protested and Padfoot growled.

**Still, you weren't eleven every day.** **Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling.**

"Okay, I'm scared." Fred said.

**He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.**

"That's pretty sketchy." Hermione frowned.

**"Found the perfect place!"**

"I doubt it." Fred said.

**he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"**

"I would rather not." this time it was George.

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine.**

"You didn't seriously go there, right?" Mrs Weasley frowned. "It could be dangerous!" ****

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Mad-eye suddenly yelled, making everybody jump.

**One thing was certain, there was no television in there.** **"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together.**

"Is that supposed to be a good thing?" Susan asked.

**"And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"** **A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them.**

"Oh great! I'll just row that to my dead!" Fred suddenly exclaimed happily and Harry burst out laughing.

**"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"**

"He's awfully cheerful." Ginny noticed. "He doesn't seriously thinks that's going to work, right?"

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces.**

Madame Pomfrey frowned again.

**After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.**

"Well... at least you arrived safely... sort of..."

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty.**

"That sounds cold." Lavender shivered.

**There were only two rooms.** **Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas.**

"That's not nearly enough!" Madame Pomfrey said indignantly. Ron obviously agreed.

**He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up.**

**"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.**

"Oh, he is horrible!" Parvati said.

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail.**

"You wish."

**Harry privately** **agreed,**

"No!" Fred groaned.

"Don't agree with him!"

**though the thought didn't cheer him up at all.**

"I wouldn't think so." Hannah sniffed.

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows.**

"You are very good with words, Harry." Luna said in her usual vague voice. "Very poetic."

**Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second** **room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa.**

"Let me guess, you had to find your own place to sleep?" Hermione asked. 

**She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find** **the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest,** **most ragged blanket.**

There were a few growls in the Hall.

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable,**

"I hate when that happens." a first year Slytherin said and her friend snorted at her.

**his stomach rumbling with hunger.**

Ron looked horrified.

**Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight.**

"Wow, they were really loud then."

**The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist,**

"He sleeps with his watch on?" Hermione asked surprised.

"In case you hadn't noticed, he's dumb." Harry answered.

**told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time.**

"Don't." he warned the twins and Lee, in case they wanted to sing him a birthday song.

**He lay and** **watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all,**

"After everything what happened? I think they would only make your day worse." Remus looked disgusted.

**wondering where the letter writer was now.** **Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside.**

"Oooohhh. Spooky." Fred said and a few people looked at him weird.

**He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did.**

The Hall was filled with laughter again.

"You are so sarcastic!" Seamus snorted.

**Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.**

"That would be cool."

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?**

"You notice a lot, don't you?" someone asked. Harry just shrugged.

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds... twenty ... ten... nine -- maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him**

"Please do!" George pleaded.

**\-- three... two... one...**

The twins looked like they wanted to scream or sing, but one look from their mom stopped them.

**BOOM.**

The book yelled it out which made quite a few jump in surprise.

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

"CLIFFHANGER!" Lee screamed.

"WHO WAS IT?" George grabbed Harry by his shoulders and shook him.

"TELL US!" Fred joined.

"Mr's Weasley's! Sit down!" McGonagall ordered. 

 


	6. The Keeper Of The Keys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They read 'The Keeper Of The Keys'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw, I suck at writing Hagrid because I can't seem to write in his accent, so he doesn't say a lot and when he speaks, it's probably not how he talks in the book.... sorry.

******  
THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS**

"Hey, that's Hagrid, right?" Everyone turned to look at the half giant who was smiling. 

**BOOM. They knocked again.**

"Keep it up and you'll knock in the door." Fred said and Hagrid looked sheepish while Harry burst out laughing. 

**Dudley jerked awake.**

"Which is a miracle by it's self." Harry rolled his eyes. 

**"Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.**

"Does he ever say anything not stupidly?" Ron snickered.

Harry pretended to rack his brain for a moment. "You know, I don't think he has." he concluded solemnly.

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room.**

Fred and George snorted. 

**He was holding a rifle in his hands --**

"He bought a _rifle_?" Hermione demanded.

"Hermione, we've already worked out that he's paranoid." Ron reasoned, trying to calm down the angry Gryffindor.

"It's still way to dangerous!" she retorted. 

"Yes, but this in the past now." Harry sussed her. "Besides, I had Hagrid, it's not like they actually had a chance." Harry grinned at the man who beamed back. 

**now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

Hermione huffed. 

**"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you -- I'm armed!"**

"So are we." Fred smirked, holding out his arms for proof.

"No, he meant that he's– urgh, never mind." a Ravenclaw Muggle-born tried to explain, before giving up when she saw the amused smirks on the Weasley twins' faces.

**There was a pause. Then --**

"What? What happened?" Dennis asked exited.

"If you'd keep your mouth shut, we would actually know." Mad-eye grunted. 

**SMASH!**

A few students and adults jumped again. 

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.**

"GO HAGRID!" George screamed and a few people cheered him on as Hagrid looked sheepish at the looks from the teachers. 

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway.**

The cheering began again.

**His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

"That's a great description." Hermione mused while looking at their friend. 

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into it's frame.**

A few students snorted. 

**The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.**

**"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..."**

"Only Hagrid." _Ron_ said, shaking his head fondly and grinning.

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear. "Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.**

"YOU TELL HIM, HAGRID!" Fred yelled.

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.**

"Cowards." Tonks rolled her eyes. 

**"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.** **Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

Hermione smiled. Hagrid was really a softie behind all that hair. 

Meanwhile, Umbridge wrinkled her nose in disgust. _Filthy half-breed..._

**"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yet dad, but yeh've got yet mom's eyes."**

"You were the first person who said that to me." he grinned at Hagrid who grinned back. 

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.**

"Ugh." a few people groaned. 

**I demand that you leave at once, sit!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

"He _literally_ broke in. He broke down the door." Dean grinned.

"I'd love to see someone try to demand something of Hagrid." a Ravenclaw giggled.

**"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune,"**

"At least that's a semi nice way to put it. I, for one, would have called him something more inappropriate." Ginny muttered.

"I can't believe you just said that, Ginny!" Fred exclaimed. 

"Yeah, whatever happened to our sweet baby sister?" George asked.

"We had a sweet baby sister?" Ron asked mockingly, and then he gave a scream of pain when Ginny punched him. Ms. Weasley gave them a warning look. 

**said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.**

Cheers filled the Hall as Hagrid received an enthusiastic ovation. **  
**

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.**

Snickers filled the Hall.

**"Anyway -- Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh.**

Harry was too late with warning them, and the Weasley twins suddenly bursted out in a birthday song, joined by most of the Hall. 

"Okay, that's quite enough!" McGonagall said after a minute. "Everyone, sit down!" 

**Got summat fer yeh here -- I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."**

_Ron_ raised an eyebrow. They loved Hagrid, but he wasn't the best cook. 

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers.**

"Did you think it was gonna explode or something?" Seamus asked. 

Harry shook his head. "It was my first gift that exactly meant something. That I can remember, anyway." 

Remus looked at the boy with sadness. They would give him the best birthday ever this year.

**Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.**

Harry smiled at the memory. 

**Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

"Really, Harry?" Hermione smiled. 

"I was in shock!" he tries to defend himself. 

**The giant chuckled.** **"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."**

"HOGWARTS!" someone cheered, successfully annoying Umbridge. 

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.**

Hagrid's friend chuckled. 

**"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."**

"Hagrid." McGonagall scolded while Dumbledore looked amused at the students who were laughing. 

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there.**

"You used magic against the rules!" Umbridge screeched. "You were expelled and your wand was broken."

Before she could say anything else, _Hermione_ came to the rescue. 

"May I remind you, that we can't punish someone for what happened years ago." _she_ said with venom and disgusted. "Besides, Hagrid was falsely accused and never should have been expelled. If the ministry had done their job in the first place, he wouldn't have been expelled to begin with."

Most students looked interested since they didn't know that Hagrid had been expelled let alone why.

Amelia Bones nodded approvingly, and Hagrid sent _Hermione_ a grateful look which she returned with a smile. 

**It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.**

"I love that feeling." Lavender sighed. 

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat:**

"I love that coat." Harry smiled. 

**a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea.**

"That coat is like the TARDIS! Bigger on the inside than the outside!" an exited first year muggle-born exclaimed. 

Most of the Hall looked confused, but _Harry_ turned to _Hermione_ with a smirk. 

"Is that were you got the idea for your bag?"

**Soon the hut was full of the sound and** **smell of sizzling sausage.**

Ron's stomach groaned loudly. **  
**

**Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt** **sausages from the poker,**

"You're making me hungry!" Seamus groaned and Ron along with some other boys agreed.

**Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

"Like Hagrid would give it to him." Ron rolled his eyes. 

**The giant chuckled darkly.** **"Yet great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."**

The twins stood up and were solemnly applauding Hagrid, their faces completely serious, as though he had made a world changing, momentous speech. Those around them snickered under their breaths.

**He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful,**

"Wow, you must have been really hungry." Ron whispered and Harry snorted. 

 **but he still couldn't take his eyes off the**   **giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."**

"This is pretty confusing for him." Angelica commented. 

"I didn' know he knew nothin'." Hagrid said sheepishly. 

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.**

**"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does.**

"Why?" a first year asked, he was answered with shrugs.

**An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts -- yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.**

"No." Hermione said with venom in her voice and Harry's friends growled. 

**"Er -- no," said Harry.**

"This isn't going to be pretty." Hannah grinned.

**Hagrid looked shocked.**

"I was pretty shocked when you told me about it on our first train ride." Ron said. 

**"Sorry," Harry said quickly.**

"Why are you apologizing? It's your family who should be sorry!"

**"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry!**

"Exactly!"

**I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud!**

"It is pretty weird that _Harry freaking Potter_ did not know about magic." Charlie admitted. 

**Did yeh never wonder where yet parents learned it all?"** **"All what?" asked Harry.**

"Oh, this is gonna get ugly!" George said in delight. 

Hagrid didn't look embarrassed anymore. Those muggles deserved everything they got!

**"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"**

"Hagrid's gonna blow." Ron whispered to Hermione and Harry, who both sniggered. **  
**

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.**

"As they should be!" Alicia said.

**"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy -- this boy! -- knows nothin' abou' -- about ANYTHING?"**

"You say it like he's dumb." _Hermione_ frowned and _Ron_ snickered. "Harry isn't dumb. I think he proved that this last few years." 

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.**

"He's not having a go at your intelligence, Harry." Justin said.

"I know that now." replied Harry, rolling his eyes. "For some reason, I think I'll be saying that a lot."

**"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff."**

"And _stuff_." Ginny snorted. 

**But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."**

"Someone should give him a straight answer for once." Terry frowned. 

**"What world?"** **Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.**

Chuckling filled the Hall.

**"DURSLEY!" he boomed.** **Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble."**

Fred and George snorted. 

**Hagrid stared wildly at Harry.** **"But yeh must know about yet mom and dad,"**

"I didn't." Harry shook his head. 

**he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."**

"That's an understatement." _Ron_ snorted. "I didn't think you could get more famous, but here we are." he smiled at _Harry._

"Yeah, except now your famous too. You can suffer with me." _he_ smirked. 

**"What? My -- my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

 "I thought that you didn't know anything about the wizarding world?" asked Malfoy, confused.

"I didn't. Why?" asked Harry.

"If you didn't know, how come you asked about your parents being famous, and ignored the part about you being famous?"

"That part hadn't registered yet." Harry shrugged. 

**"Yeh don' know... yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.** **"Yeh don' know what yeh are?"**

"That sounds like you're telling him he's an alien from Krypton." Dean chuckled. 

"Well, I guess it's kinda the same." Hermione mussed. "I mean, Hagrid is telling him he's a wizard  and he has magic."

"It would be pretty cool if I was from Krypton." Harry said thoughtfully. "It would be a lot easier to fight Voldemort."

Hermione snorted.

**he said finally. Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.** **"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sit! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

"You forbid?" Ginny exclaimed. 

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.**

"Hagrid is like the nicest person you'll ever meet, but when he's angry, you better watch out." _Harry_ grinned. 

"Not that I've seen him angry a lot." _Hermione_ added. Then she looked at Umbridge in disgust. "Except that time with the ministry later this year, remember?" she said, thinking back at the night when the ministry wanted to arrest Hagrid and resulted in an unconscious McGonagall and a furious Hagrid. 

"Oh yeah." _Ron_ frowned as the Hall looked at them in interest. Not that they noticed. 

**"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"**

"YOU TELL HIM, HAGRID!" George yelled. 

**"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.**

"Just tell him!" Remus said exasperate. 

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic. Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

"Drama queen." Tonks rolled her eyes. 

**"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh,"**

Laughter filled the Hall.

**said Hagrid. "Harry -- yer a wizard."**

"Finally!" Katie exclaimed. 

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.**

"Mysterious..."

**"-- a what?" gasped Harry.**

"An alien." Dean said. 

**"A wizard, o' course,"**

"Of course, cuz that's the most normal thing ever!" Hermione rolled her eyes. 

"For me it is." Ron shrugged. 

**said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good' un, I'd say,**

"Yeah, he is." _Ron_ grinned and _Hermione_ agreed. Actually, all Harry's friend agreed. 

**once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be?**

The adults who knew them agreed. 

**An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

"FINALLY!" the general cry in the Hall was. 

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea.**

"How accurate." someone snorted. 

**He pulled out the letter and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

The Hall cheered, even if it was just to annoy Umbridge. 

**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**

**Dear Mr. Potter,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.**

"Can you imagine what would have happened if Harry hadn't gone to Hogwarts?" _Ron_ wondered.

"Well, he wouldn't jump head first into danger." _Hermione_ said. 

"No, I think he still wouldn't." _Ron_ grinned while _Harry_ pouted. "Although I think we can agree that Voldemort would have come back years before he did now." 

While most people were distracted by _Ron's_ prediction, the golden trio's mouth fell to the ground for another reason. 

"Did you just call Voldemort by his name?" Harry asked. Ron had always been so persistent on calling him you-know-who. The _trio_ looked up and _Harry_ grinned.  

"Oh yeah, we finally convinced him to call him that."

"We?" Harry asked confused. "You mean Hermione and I?"

"Yeah, I started calling him by his name in fifth year." Hermione said and then frowned. "I thought I already did that by now."

"Well, yeah, but I didn't think you would keep calling him like that." Harry explained. 

"Why?" Hermione turned her gaze to her best friend. 

"Well, you called him You-know-who for years. I thought you would go back to your old habits." He explained. 

"Oh, she did at some point. We all did." _Ron_ grimaced at the fear everyone was living in when there was a curse on his name.

"Wait, Harry called him you-know-who?" Fred asked stupefied. 

"Why?" Harry looked lost. "I would rather call him by his real name."

"Oh yeah," _Ron_ grinned. "You kept that name for when you two were face to face and you wanted to annoy him."

Meanwhile, some of the adults were having heart attacks. 

"Yeah, just annoy the most powerful dark wizard in the world, why don't you. Just a normal day." Remus rubbed his temples and _Harry_ smiled innocently. 

**Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**

**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. Yours sincerely,**

**Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress**

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first.**

"I had the same feeling." a muggle-born seventh year grinned dat the memory.

**After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

"Of all the questions, you ask that?" a Slytherin asked. 

"Well, most of it made kinda sense from movies you see or books you read, but I had no idea what they meant with the owl." Harry explained. 

**"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet** **another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl --**

"A real one? Like alive?"

**a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl -- a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:**

"You are way to curious." McGonagall looked over her glasses at the young Gryffindor. 

"It's a gift." he grinned. 

"No, it's quite annoying." Hermione rolled her eyes. "For some reason you always get pulled into danger."

**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**   
**Given Harry his letter.**   
**Taking him to buy his things tomorrow. Weather's horrible. Hope you're Well.**

**Hagrid**

"Were you well, sir?" Fred asked with a not so innocent tone.

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm.**

"Subtle." Justin grinned. 

**Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

"For a wizard it is." Mr. Weasley said. 

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.**

"I was pretty shocked." Harry thought back to that day. 

**"Where was I?"**

"You were finally going to explain to Harry what was going on." Bill said. 

**said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

"No... can't he just leave them alone?" Susan groaned. 

**"He's not going," he said.**

"Yes he is." Charlie said. 

**Hagrid grunted.** **"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.**

"That would be hilarious."

**"A what?" said Harry, interested.**

"Wow, you really don't know anything!" a Ravenclaw said, although he didn't realize how that sounded. 

**"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like thern. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

"I think he meant that literally as well." Ron grinned.

**"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish,"**

"You can't! It's dangerous if you suppress your magic!" Padma exclaimed. 

 _The golden trio_ shared a look and then turned their gaze to the old wizard. They knew what could have happened if the Dursley's had succeeded in it. 

**said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"**

The Hall was growling, Sirius loudest of all, which wasn't unusual since he was a dog... 

**"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a -- a wizard?"**

"Of course she knew." McGonagall scoffed. "Her _sister_ came here!"

**"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How** **could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was?**

"Hey!" Remus exclaimed. "She can't say something like that!"

**Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that-that school-and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats.**

_Harry_ looked at the table with sadness in his eyes. That had been the first thing her aunt had told him about his parents that was true.

**I was the only one who saw her for what she was -- a freak!**

"Lily wasn't a freak!" Remus was losing his temper along with Sirius. Lily and James had been the best persons they ever met!

**But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that,** **they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

"As they should be!" a Hufflepuff third year said. 

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

"She is horrible!" Ginny exclaimed. 

**"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as -- as -- abnormal --**

"Well, to be honest, Harry is abnormal." Fred said, trying to defuse the tension a bit. "Even for wizard standards." 

Ron snorted. "That's an understatement."

"Hey!" 

**and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"**

Everyone's mouth fell to the ground in shock. 

"How... How could she say something like that?" Ms. Weasley asked with tears in her eyes. 

**Harry had gone very white.**

In the Hall, Harry was a similar color.  **  
**

**As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

"Ohh, Hagrid is not gonna like that." George said. 

**"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner.**

"Told ya."

"No one disagreed, George." Ginny rolled her eyes.

"What's your point?" 

**"How could a car crash kill Lily an'** **James Potter?** **It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his** **own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"**

"I never thought that I would say this, but he's got a point." Malfoy said. **  
**

**"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.** **The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.**

"Bigges' Shock o' my life." said Hagrid, shaking his head. **  
**

**"I never expected this,"**

"Neither did we." Sprout shook her head sadly. 

**he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know.**

Dumbledore looked down sadly. 

**Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh --** **but someone's gotta** **\-- yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."**

"No, it would be even worse if you found out there." Hermione said. 

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.**

People were glaring at the book. 

**"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh -- mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it...."**

"It still is." Harry mumbled. He then turned to his older selves. "Do I ever find out what really happened?" he asked. 

"Eventually." _Harry_ sighed. That had been a horrible to find out. 

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with -- with a person called --**

"Voldemort." Harry said with disgust. "It always starts with him."

**but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows --"**

"I agree." Hannah said. "It's so weird to think that you don't know who he is..."

**"Who?"** **"Well -- I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."**

"Well, a few person's do. Professor Dumbledore, Remus, Hermione, Harry and apparently, in the future, Ron." Ginny said. 

"Yes, though I would think that some knew better than to say it." Ms. Weasley sent a pointed look at the teenagers. 

**"Why not?"**

"Because everyone is still scared." Tonks said. 

**"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went... bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse.**

"I think that is still an understatement." _Harry_ said, thinking about everything the murderer of his parents had done. 

**His name was..."** **Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.**

"Most wizards can't say it." Dumbledore said.

"Which I don't get, I mean, if he isn't back, what are you afraid of?" Harry asked with a pointed look at Umbridge and Fudge. 

**"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.**

**"Nah -can't spell it.**

"Only he would pick a name that no one can spell." Lee said, shaking his head. "No wonder he went evil. People always spelling his name wrong all the time. It'd be enough to drive anyone 'round the bend."

"That's enough, Jordan." said McGonagall sternly, effectively shutting up the grinning Gryffindor.

**All right -- Voldemort. " Hagrid shuddered.**

"Wow, you made him say it." Fred said, mildly impressed. 

**"Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this -- this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers.**

"And he got them." Mad-eye added.

**Got 'em, too -- some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power,**

Hermione indignantly let out a puff of breath. 

**'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days,** **Harry.**

"They were." Mr. Weasley shuddered at the memory.

Meanwhile, Harry's, Hermione's and Ron's minds went back to the war and the days prior, people living in fear of everyone. 

**Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches...**

Amelia shuddered as she thought back to those horrible times. 

**terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him --** **an' he killed 'em.**

The Order smiled sadly. 

**Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts.**

"At least we have that." Harry sighed. 

**Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of.**

"Not anymore." _Hermione_ said, looking at _Harry_ as everyone followed her gaze. 

"I would be scared too if Harry turned on us." _Ron_ said. Most of the Hall looked shocked at that statement. 

 _Harry_ frowned. "As if I would turn on you."

**Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

The trio shared a look again. 

**"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew.** **Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day!**

Remus and McGonagall smiled sadly. 

**Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the** **Dark Side.**

"One of the reason's." _Harry_ mumbled, thinking back to the prophecy. 

**"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way.**

Dumbledore looked down sadly. 

**All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' -- an' --"**

Harry closed his eyes and Hermione grabbed his hand for comfort. Everyone in the Hall bowed their heads in respect, well, except Umbridge. 

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.**

**"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad -- knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find -- anyway..."**

"No, you couldn't." Remus agreed with tears in his eyes. 

**"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then -- an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing -- he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then.**

_Harry_ looked up to Dumbledore. He had made peace with the dead of his old headmaster, and the man looked back, the sparkle in his eyes gone as he remembered why Voldemort had actually wanted to kill Harry. 

**But he couldn't** **do it.**

"I still don't understand why." Ginny said. 

**Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a Powerful, evil curse touches** **yeh --**

Harry absentmindedly traced the scare with his finger, much to Hermione's amusement. 

**took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even -- but it didn't** **work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry.**

"It'd rather have my parents back then the fame." Harry whispered. He was looking at the table so he didn't notice the pitying looks that were send his way. 

"That's a horrible way to get famous." Susan said sadly. 

**No one ever lived after** **he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you,**

_'And the Dark Lord shall mark him as his equal.'_  Dumbledore thought grimly. **  
**

**an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age -- the McKinnons, the Bones,**

Susan Bones let out a squeak of sadness, and Hannah Abbott started comforting her while her aunt looked down sadly.  **  
**

**the Prewetts --**

The Weasley's looked down, looking saddened by the reminder of the deaths of their family. **  
**

**an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."**

"Remarkable." Amelia said. She had a feeling like Umbridge was gonna rant about Harry being dangerous, so she sent her a warning look. 

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind.**

Ron joined Hermione by putting his hand on Harry's shoulder.

**As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before -- and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel** **laugh.**

The adults, excluding Umbridge as usual, shot each other looks. No eleven year old should ever remember something like that. Ever. **  
**

Hermione laid her head on Harry's shoulder.

**Hagrid was watching him sadly.** **"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot..."**

"Unfortunately." 

**"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there.**

"Me too." Ginny agreed. 

**Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.**

"He's even more stupid than I thought." George said. 

**"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured --**

"Harry-" Hermione started to say, but he cut her off. 

"We'll talk about it later."

**and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it,**

"Oh that little bitc-"

"GINEVRA!" Ms. Weasley cut her off over the laughter.

Fred and George were rolling on the floor. 

"Ginny, how could you say that?" Ron smirked. "It's clear that he isn't a little, but a big bi-"

"RONALD WEASLEY."

**and the world's better off without them in my opinion --**

The Hall was growling again. 

"I can't believe he said that in front of you!" _Hermione_ exclaimed. 

"Believe it." _Harry_ shrugged. 

Most of the students were surprised that Harry was so nice after everything the Dursleys put him through. After all, it's not uncommon that kids that have bad homes, become bullies.

**asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types -- just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end --"**

"How– how _dares_ he?" McGonagall fumed.  **  
**

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat.**

Harry smiled at the memory of that umbrella and what it had done. 

**Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley -I'm warning you -- one more word... "**

"Hex him!" cried most of the students along with some of the adults.  **  
**

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.**

"Good." Katie huffed. 

**"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.**

A few teachers and students grinned at Hagrid. 

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.**

"Of course you did." Hermione said, "I would think you were crazy if you didn't."

**"But what happened to Vol--, sorry -- I mean, You-Know-Who?"**

"You didn't say his name!" Ron exclaimed, feigning life changing surprise.

"Yeah, and that lasted _how_ long?" Harry smirked.

**"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see... he was gettin' more an' more powerful -- why'd he go?**

"Because he died." Umbridge said with utmost certainty. Harry rolled his eyes. 

**"Some say he died.**

"He couldn't." _Harry_ said as _Hermione_ sent him a warning look. 

"What does that mean?" Bill asked but _they_ didn't answer. 

**Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die.**

_Harry_ snorted. "Spot on, Hagrid."

**Some say he's still out there, bidin' his** **time, like, but I don' believe it.**

"He is."

**People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances.** **Don' reckon** **they could've done if he was comin' back.**

"Unfortunately, most of them were doing it because they were scared. They never had any loyalty to any of the sides." Shacklebolt said. 

**"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on.**

"Turns out you were right, Hagrid." Harry closed his eyes, remembering everything that Voldemort had said in the Little Hangleton graveyard, that night of the Third Task, the night he murdered Cedric. 

_'I was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost... but still, I was alive.'_

**'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on -- I dunno what it was, no one does -- but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."**

Dumbledore shifted uncomfortably again. **  
**

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes,**

"Yeah, most of us did when first meeting Harry." Ms. Weasley thought back at the day on the platform. 

**but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake.**

"Wait what? Why?" Dean asked. 

"Because Harry is an idiot and doesn't understand how powerful he is." Ron rolled his eyes as Harry's cheek started to warm up. 

**A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be?**

Fred looked like he was about to explain so Harry stopped him. 

"I know _now_."

**He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon;**

The adults frowned. 

**if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned** **into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard?**

"Ohh, you should do that!" Fred said. 

**If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?**

Hermione smiled fondly at Harry's thought. 

**"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."**

The Hall snorted. 

"Right..." Justin grinned. 

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.**

Just as now. 

**"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"**

"Yeah." Ron thought back to the snake from last chapter. 

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it... every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry... chased by Dudley's gang,**

Ginny huffed. 

**he had somehow found himself out of their reach... dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut,**

"I think everyone would." Seamus said, thinking back to the description. 

**he'd managed to make it grow back... and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his** **revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him?**

"So cool." Dennis said excited. 

**Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.**

Harry was beaming at Hagrid now. 

**"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard -- you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

Harry let out an annoyed huff. "Great..."

Ron snorted while people who didn't know Harry looked at the boy in confusion. 

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.**

"Oh, go home." groaned Fred, pretending to bang his head against the table in frustration.

**"Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it.**

Remus had trouble not to yell out what he thought, which weren't very pretty thoughts.

 **I've read those letters and he needs**   **all sorts of rubbish -- spell books and wands and --"**

"It's not rubbish!" someone snapped.  **  
**

**"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him,"**

"That's true." Ron muttered. 

**growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad.**

"Yeah, but we already knew that."

**His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there** **and he won't know himself.**

"How about six instead of seven?"  _Harry_ laughed. 

"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked. 

"Oh, nothing." _Ron_ grinned. 

**He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled--"**

Dumbledore smiled at the compliment. 

**"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!"  
yelled Uncle Vernon.**

The twins and Lee burst out laughing while half of the Hall gasped. 

"Hagrid is not gonna like that!"

**But he had finally gone too far.** **Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled** **it over his head,**

"GO HAGRID!"

**"NEVER," he thundered, "- INSULT- ALBUS- DUMBLEDORE- IN- FRONT- OF- ME!"**

All around the hall, people were smirking or snickering. An angry Hagrid wasn't a pleasant sight if that anger was directed at you.

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley --**

Harry grinned.

**there was a flash of violet light,**

"Oh Hagrid." McGonagall sighed. 

**a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain.**

"What did you do?" Colin asked. 

**When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in** **his trousers.**

The Hall exploded into an uproar of laughter, and Hagrid beamed sheepishly as he received yet another standing ovation, the applauds reaching as high as the ceiling. Even some of the adults were applauding the Care of Magical Creatures professor.

Umbridge's face became a sight more horrible than usual as her scowl seemed to become permanently etched into her toad-like face.

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.**

"FINALLY!" Angelica yelled. 

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.**

**"Shouldn'ta lost me temper,"**

"But it was still amazing." Ron grinned. 

**he said ruefully, "but it didn't work** **anyway.**

"And you're lucky for that." McGonagall looked at the giant over her glasses. 

**Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."**

The twins were overcome with fits of laughter again, their faces beginning to go red to match their hair. **  
**

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.**

**"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm -- er -- not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff -- one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job"**

"Cat's out of the bag now." Harry said with a bitter undertone. 

**"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.**

Harry glared at the minister who looked away. 

**"Oh, well -- I was at Hogwarts meself but I -- er -- got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything.**

Hermione huffed annoyed.

**But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore." "Why were you expelled?"**

"Of all the secrets, Hagrid'll never tell you that." George said.

"Yeah, we tried." Fred added, nodding knowingly.

Harry shared a look with Ron and Hermione that, luckily, was missed by everyone.

**"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."**

"That was awesome." Harry smiled at the memory. "Best birthday every." 

Hagrid beamed at him.  

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.**

**"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."**

"Why've you got dormice in your pockets?" Justin asked, curiosity coloring his voice.

"Probably to feed that owl." Ernie answered thoughtfully.

"Still, who walks around with owls and dormice in their pockets?" Nigel wondered aloud.

"Hagrid does." Hermione, Harry and Ron said at the same time, smiling fondly.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me a bit longer then I wanted, but here it is.


	7. Diagon Alley

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finished it! This chapter was way to long. Sorry for the late update, but I'm already working on the next!

**_ IMPORTANT READ!!!!! _ **

**_ I won't follow J.K.'s choice of Harry's career as an Auror. I think he should have been an teacher instead, so that's what I'm doing. If you have a problem with it, put it in the comments and I'll change it. Just tell me what you'd rather want.  _ **

 

**CHAPTER FIVE DIAGON ALLEY**

The students cheered.

**Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight.**

"I always do that." Fred said solemnly. "Hoping the day won't begin and I won't have to get up."

**"It was a dream,"**

"No, it wasn't." Hannah frowned. 

"Yeah, but I thought it was." Harry explained. 

**he told himself firmly. "I dreamed a giant called** **Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards.**

"Why would you think it was a dream?" Colin asked. 

"Because I had dreams like that all the time. It wouldn't surprise me if that had been another one." Harry shrugged. 

**When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard."**

Students and adults glared at the book at the mention of Harry's old room. 

**There was suddenly a loud tapping noise.**

"What is it?" Neville asked.

"IT'S THE GOULASH MONSTER!" Fred suddenly screamed which made Neville jump.

George grabbed the boy by his collar and screamed "EVERYONE, QUICK, HIDE!" 

"Mr's Weasley's, sit down!" 

**And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door,**

"NO, HARRY. WHY WON'T YOU LISTEN TO US? IT'S THE GOULASH MONSTER!" Fred screamed again.

"That's enough!" Mcgonagall cut in. 

 _'Goulash monster?'_  Hermione mouthed to Ginny who just shrugged. 

**Harry thought, his heart sinking.**

"That really sucks." Charlie frowned. 

**But he still didn't open his eyes. It had been such a good** **dream.**

"Well, good thing that it wasn't a dream!" Susan smiled. 

**Tap. Tap. Tap.**

"But what is the tapping? It isn't his aunt." Katie asked. 

**"All right," Harry mumbled, "I'm getting up."**

"You know, you really are a pessimist." Hermione said. 

"I have a good reason to be." Harry pointed out to her. 

**He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him. The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over,**

"It would be a long storm if it was still raging." someone commented. 

**Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa,**

A few students chuckled and Hagrid blushed. 

**and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.**

"Merlin, those owls are really impatient." Hannah grumbled, murmurs of agreement around her. The amount of times that she'd been pecked by those blasted owls because they didn't want to wait an extra moment... **  
**

**Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon  
was swelling inside him. **

Harry's friend's and the adults smiled. 

"You have a way with metaphors, Harry." Luna commented in her usual distant voice.

**He went straight to the window and jerked it** **open.**

"Eager much?" Ron grinned. 

**The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up.**

The twins snickered again.

**The owl then fluttered onto the floor and began to** **attack Hagrid's coat.**

"I hate it when they do that." Justin frowned. 

**"Don't do that."** **Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat.**

"Don't ever try to argue with post owls, mate." Ron advised in what he must have thought was a 'wise' voice.

"Not all owls are as nice as Hedwig." Hermione smiled. 

 _Harry_ smiled sadly at the reminder of his loyal owl. 

**"Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl-"**

"Attacking your coat? That would look weird if you didn't know." Terry chuckled. 

**"Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa.**

"Like he'll know what to do." Justin snorted. "He doesn't even know about wizard money."

**"What?"**

"See."

**"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."**

"Which one?" Bill snorted. 

**Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing but pockets --**

"I love coats with lots of pockets." Someone from the Slytherin table grinned. 

**bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags...**

"May I ask why you carry those items around in your pockets, Hagrid?" George asked, putting on an extremely accurate impersonation of Percy's voice.

"Isn't it obvious?" Fred answered for the half-giant, shaking his head in mock disappointment. "You never know when you might need a ball of string, or a slug pellet. Honestly, George."

Their little exchange was followed by sniggers from the students.

**finally, Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins.**

"Not as strange as that muggle money you got from your uncle." Ron thought back at the strange shape of the money Harry had received at Christmas in first year. 

**"Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily.**

"He won't know what those are." Neville said shaking his head. **  
**

**"Knuts?"**

**"The little bronze ones."**

**Harry counted out five little bronze coins, and the owl held out his leg so Harry could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then he flew off through the open window.**

"Your first payment with wizard money!" Fred exclaimed.

"We're so proud of you!" George finished while wiping away a non-existing tear.

"Oh shush." Harry smiled while rolling his eyes. 

**Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up, and stretched.**

"So if you were about to get up, why did you let Harry pay?" Justin asked. 

"I thought it woul' be a good experience." Hagrid mumbled. 

"It was." Harry smiled. 

**"Best be off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school."**

"Your first trip to Diagon Ally, that's awesome!" Tonks grinned. "I can't wait to see your reaction." 

**Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just thought of something that made him feel as though the happy balloon inside him had got a puncture.**

"Such a way with words." Luna murmured dreamily again, even though no one could hear her.

"Oh no, not the happy balloon!" Lee howled dramatically, putting a hand over his forehead.

"We're doomed!" the twins cried, clutching each other in mock terror and pretending to sob.

**"Um -- Hagrid?" "Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.**

**"I haven't got any money --**

Ron and a few others snorted. 

"Seriously, Potter? Your family was one of the richest wizards family." Malfoy said. 

"Well, I know that now." Harry grumbled. 

**and you heard Uncle Vernon last night ... he won't pay for me to go and learn magic."**

"We would never let a thing as small as funding a child stop one from learning magic." Dumbledore shook his head. 

**"Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"**

**"But if their house was destroyed --"**

"Harry, they wouldn't have kept their money in their house." Hermione pointed out exasperated.

"You never know, everything I had ever read or seen in movies about wizards showed them keeping their money in treasure chests." Harry said quickly. "Or that they kept their money locked up being guarded by dragons or something like that."

"Honestly." Hermione muttered rolling her eyes.

 _Harry_ , _Ron_ and _Hermione_ smiled at the mention of a dragon guarding money. 

**"They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold -- an' I wouldn' say no teh a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither."**

"That's not a good breakfast." Madame Pomfrey sniffed. 

"We didn't have much of a choice." Harry pointed out to her. 

**"Wizards have banks?"**

"Seriously Potter, how stupid can you get?" Draco asked condescendingly.

"Like I said Malfoy I didn't know that." Harry shot back. "And I was eleven." He put emphasis on eleven.

**"Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."**

The _trio_ shared a glance again, thinking back at the day they escaped that place on a dragon. 

**Harry dropped the bit of sausage he was holding. "Goblins?"**

Bill chuckled. "That would be a good reaction to them."

**"Yeah -- so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry.**

"Hagrid's right." Bill said. "You would be mad to rob them."

"I don't think someone could rob Gringotts. Unless you'd use dark magic." Remus said, thinking back at the dark wizard who had broken into Gringotts that day. 

"Besides, even if you got in, you'd die trying to get out." Mr Weasley frowned. 

"You hear that, Harry?" _Hermione_ smirked. "You'd be mad to rob them." 

"Yeah, never mess with goblins, Harry." _Ron_ said, barely containing his laughing. 

"Hey, you agreed with the plan." _Harry_ was also grinning. 

"What are you talking about?" Remus raised an eyebrow. "What did you do?"

"Why would you think we did something?" _Harry_ asked with an innocent smile. 

"Because it's you three." Ginny frowned. "You always get into trouble."

Hermione looked from the book to their future selves and gasped. "Did you rob Gringotts?" 

Everyone looked at Hermione in shock and then turned their gaze on the time travelers who were smiling mysteriously.  

"I have no idea what you're talking about." _Harry_ said. 

"You did!" Hermione exclaimed shocked. 

"Of course you would figure it out." _Ron_ snorted. 

"It's not like you two were very discreet." _Harry_ told him. 

"Wait, you actually broke into Gringotts?" Tonks asked. 

"Well...yeah." _Harry_ said and quickly added "But it's not what you think!" 

The twins and some other boys were rolling on the floor laughing. Most of the adults looked at them in shock or amusement. Fudge was lost for words and confused. The rest of the students didn't quite know what to think. 

Ron, Harry and Hermione glanced at each other. Why would they rob Gringotts?

"AHA!" Umbridge suddenly screeched. She stood up and pointed an accusing finger in their direction. "I told you they were criminals!" 

 _Harry_ let out a long, deep sigh. He then stood up and began his speech. "Okay, first of all, we are not criminals. Yes, we broke into Gringotts, but not for a bad reason."

"Why would I break into Gringotts?" Harry asked. "It's not like I actually need something out of anyone else's safe." 

"This wasn't about money or gold." _Hermione_ said. "This was about something much more important." 

"Wait, so all three of you actually broke into Gringotts?" Mrs Weasley asked, still trying to wrap her mind around it. 

"Yeah..." _Ron_ looked sheepish. 

"What could be so important that would make you do that?" McGonagall asked. 

"Voldemort." _Harry_ said. "We can't tell you much, but it had something to do with defeating him."

"You-Know-Who is gone!" Umbridge screeched again. 

"Secondly," _Harry_ continued annoyed. "We can't be arrested while reading, and when we're gone, you can't arrest us from this time period, because they haven't even done it yet." 

Amelia Bones smiled a little. "He's right."

"Okay, so are we going to skip over the part that you managed to  _break into Gringotts_?" Bill asked stunned. "I know the security there, it would be impossible to get in. Let alone get out."

"We had a bit of help." _Ron_ grinned. "One of the goblins helped us get in."

"Let's continue." _Hermione_ said, trying to minimize the spoilers. 

**Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe --**

"Well, apparently not." Fudge said. 

**'cept maybe Hogwarts.**

Harry, Ron and Hermione snorted.

"Wizards should really do something about there security." 

**As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business."**

"Yeah, that went great." Harry said sarcastically. 

**Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you gettin' things from Gringotts -- knows he can trust me, see.**

"We all trust you, Hagrid." Hermione smiled at him. 

"Yeah, just a little less when it has something to do with animals." _Ron_ frowned. 

**"Got everythin'? Come on, then."**

"It's not like I had much to take with me." Harry shrugged. 

**Harry followed Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight.**

"I love the sea." Lavender sighed dreamily. 

**The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.**

"Now all I can think of is that part in Pirates Of The Caribbean 1 where Captain Jack Sparrow arrives at the harbor while his boat sinks to the bottom of the ocean." Justin grinned. 

**"How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat.**

"Magic..." Fred said mysteriously. 

**"Flew," said Hagrid.**

"Flew?" Ron asked. "No offense, Hagrid, but I cannot see you flying." 

"Well, except if it's on his motorcycle." Harry said. 

**"Flew?"**

**"Yeah -- but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."**

"That didn't take long." Seamus laughed, thinking back at the tail Dudley got. 

**They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying.**

"You and me both, mate." Ron grinned. 

**"Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter -- er -- speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"**

The Hall was filled with laughter, even Dumbledore chuckled. 

Umbridge was fuming. That filthy half-breed needed to be arrested!

**"Of course not," said Harry, eager to see more magic.**

"Can't blame you. I would be too." Susan smiled. 

**Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat, and they sped off toward land.**

"I love that umbrella!" Dean said and most of the Hall agreed. 

Meanwhile, Mcgonagall looked at with Hagrid an amused and exasperate expression. 

**"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.**

A few students in the Hall grinned.

"Why do ask?" Fred asked with an not-so-innocent voice. "Are you planning on robbing it?"

"Very funny." Harry grumbled above the laughter. 

**"Spells -- enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guardin'** **the highsecurity vaults.**

"Are there really?" Charlie frowned and turned his gaze to his brother. 

"I don't know." Bill said. 

"There are." _Hermione_ said with disgust. The Hall turned to look at them. 

"Really? There are actually dragons down there?" Dean asked. 

 _Harry_ nodded. "They're protecting the older vaults. Someone should really do something about that. They're treated horribly."

Charlie looked furious. "Oh, I will do something about that."

"How do you know this?" Amelia asked. 

"Well..." _Ron_ snatched his neck nervously. "One of those dragons was kinda our ticket out."

A silence settled on the Hall.

"You broke out of Gringotts... on a dragon?" Fred asked.

 _Ron_ nodded.

"That. Is. GENIUS!" George screamed. 

"Okay, I think that's enough spoilers." _Hermione_ said with a stern look.

"NO, YOU HAVE TO TELL US MORE!" Fred screamed.

"After we're done reading." _Hermione_ said.

"This doesn't mean we're gonna let breaking into a bank slide." Remus said.

The _trio_ just smiled. 

**And then yeh gotta find yer way -- Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground.**

"It _is_ really dangerous." Mrs Weasley said with a pointed look at the teenage heroes. 

**Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."**

"Yeah, except when you're Harry Potter, Hermione Granger or Ron Weasley." Ginny rolled her eyes. 

**Harry sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the Daily Prophet.**

Harry huffed at the mention of the newspaper. 

**Harry had learned from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult, he'd never** **had so many questions in his life.**

"No, no. That's normal for you." Ron smirked. **  
**

"I wouldn't 'ave minded if yer asked me questions Harry." Hagrid told him.

Harry smiled up at his large friend.

**"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.**

"Well there's a shocker." Harry said with fake cheerfulness. 

"We do not!" Umbridge and Fudge yelled. **  
**

"Keep telling yourself that. Maybe, one day, it'll come true." Hermione said with a loathing look on her face. The DA laughed.

**"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked, before he could stop himself.**

"If you could call it that." Ron snorted. 

"Ronald!" His mom exclaimed as his brothers and sister laughed. 

**"'Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o'** **course,**

"I think they're over that now." _Harry_ couldn't help but grin. 

**but he'd never leave Hogwarts,**

"Never." Dumbledore shock his head.

The _Trio_ shared a glance. It seemed like it been a good idea to bury Dumbledore on Hogwarts grounds.  

**so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one.**

"I– how _dare_ you?" Fudge spluttered, choking on his indignation. "I am not a bungler!"

Sniggers were heard around the Hall.

**So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."**

"I do _not!"_

"That's not what we heard." Dean muttered to Seamus.

**"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?"**

"Nothing!" Ginny growled loudly for everyone to hear.

"We do important things." Fudge corrected self-righteously, straightening his robes.

"Oh yeah?" Fred asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Like what?" George added, his expression the same as his twin's.

"Like throwing innocent people in Azkaban?" Harry commented scathingly.

"Like allowing murderers to run around the country unchecked?" Justin added. 

"Accepting bribery from known Death Eaters to keep them out of Azkaban?" Ron hissed.

"Sitting there, becoming corrupted by power?" someone further up the Ravenclaw table snarled.

"Allowing lies to be printed in the _Prophet?"_ Hermione said, her tone deceptively casual.

**"Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."**

"And they're doing such a great job." Harry rolled his eyes. 

**"Why?"**

"Did you just ask 'why'?" Malfoy sneered. 

Harry rolled his eyes. "I was curious. How could I have known why they did it?" 

**"Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone."**

Murmurs of agreement were heard around the Hall. 

**At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbor wall.**

"That was quick."

**Hagrid folded up his newspaper, and they clambered up the stone steps onto the street.**

"So, if you took the boat, what happened with your aunt and uncle?" Padma asked. 

Harry thought about it for a second. "I have no idea..." 

**Passersby stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station.**

"I hadn't expected anything else." Remus smiled. 

**Harry couldn't blame them.**

"Me neither." 

**Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Harry? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?"**

George, Fred and Lee burst out laughing.

'"I'm not even going to bother." McGonagall said, shaking her head. Hagrid would always be the same, no matter what she said.

Dumbledore just chuckled a bit. 

**"Hagrid," said Harry, panting a bit as he ran to keep up, "did you say there are dragons at Gringotts?"**

"Apparently." Charlie glanced at the _Trio_. 

**"Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."**

"Yeah, 'cuz that worked out great." Ron rolled his eyes. Harry and Hermione smiled. 

"What did you do?" Molly asked. 

"Why do you immediately think we did something?" Ron asked. 

"Because it's you three." Ginny said. 

"You're always up to something." George added. 

"Especially if it's something dangerous." Fred finished and the three just smiled. 

An annoying cough rang through the Hall. "May I remind you, that it is illegal to keep dragons without-"

"Yes, yes. We know, just sit down." _Ron_ grumbled

**"You'd like one?"**

"I don't even know why I was surprised by it." Harry shook his head fondly. 

**"Wanted one ever since I was a kid -- here we go."**

"I'm surprised you didn't have one when you were a kid, Hagrid." _Harry_ grinned. 

"No, he just kept giant spiders." _Ron_ grumbled, leaving the Hall to wonder what they were talking about.

**They had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes' time.**

"That's lucky." 

**Hagrid, who didn't understand "Muggle money," as he called it, gave the bills to Harry so he could buy their tickets.**

Students in the Hall snickered. 

**People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.**

"It's like they have never seen a giant knitting on a train." Fred said. 

**"Still got yer letter, Harry?"**

"Like he'd lose it after everything that happened." Susan said. 

**he asked as he counted stitches. Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket.**

"See."

**"Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need."**

**Harry unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before, and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY UNIFORM  
First-year students will require:  
1\. Three sets of plain work robes (black)**

**2\. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear**

"Yeah, remind me, why do we need those?" Seamus grumbled. 

**3\. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)  
4\. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)  
Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags COURSE BOOKS  
All students should have a copy of each of the following:  
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk  
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot**

"How old is that book?" someone asked. 

**Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling  
A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emetic Switch  
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger  
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble OTHER EQUIPMENT**

**wand cauldron (pewter, standard size 2) set glass or crystal phials  
telescope set  
brass scales**

**Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad**

**PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN  
BROOMSTICKS**

"Yeah, unless you're name is Harry Potter." Malfoy grumbled. 

**"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.**

"Of course. Where else would you buy it?" Ron asked. 

**"If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid.** **Harry had never been to London before.**

"Really?" Hermione asked surprised.

"Dursley's." was all Harry said. 

**Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way.**

"That's true."

**He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground, and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.**

A few students snickered. 

**"I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," he said as they climbed a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops.**

"Well, Muggles never had magic in their lives, therefor can't miss what they never had." Hermione said. 

**Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all Harry had to do was keep close behind him.**

"Your father used to do that in the corridor's on a busy day." Remus laughed. "He'd just walk behind Hagrid."

**They passed book shops and music stores, hamburger restaurants and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand.**

"Of course not. We wouldn't put it in the open like that." Tonks said. 

**This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them?**

"Yup."

**Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks?**

"There really is." 

**Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up?**

"With what humor?" Fred snorted. 

"Harry, the Dursley's wouldn't know a joke if it danced naked in front of them wearing Dobby's socks!" George said and Harry laughed in agreement. 

**If Harry hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humor, he might have thought so;**

"Exactly!" Fred exclaimed. 

"No one disagreed with you." Angeline rolled her eyes. 

**yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid had told him so far was unbelievable, Harry couldn't help trusting him.**

"He has that effect on people." Dumbledore smiled and Hagrid blushed. 

Umbridge sneered quietly. Who could ever trust that filthy, barbaric half-breed?

As she looked around the Hall, the answer became painfully clear to her from the amount of nodding students, and she scowled with disdain again. Apparently, every Gryffindor, and most of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs trusted the hairy oaf.

**"This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."**

"Very famous. And very dirty." Lavender wrinkled her nose. 

**It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out,** **Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there.**

"That's the point, Potter." Malfoy said. 

"I know." he snapped back. 

**The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all.**

"Muggles can be very ignorant." Someone said. 

**In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and** **Hagrid could see it. Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside.**

"Someone should really explain this to him." Sprout said. "This is very confusing for him."

**For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby.**

"it does has it's own..." Bill started. "...charm." he finally decided.  

**A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was** **smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut.**

"I love watching the people who come there." someone from the Hufflepuff table said. 

**The** **low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid;**

"Everyone really does. It's hard to miss him." Ron grinned. 

**they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"**

"I take it that you visit Leaky Cauldron regularly." Dennis said. It wasn't a question.

**"Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder and making Harry's knees buckle.**

McGonagall and a couple of other teachers sent Hagrid exasperated looks, who had the decency to blush sheepishly.

"Great, now all the attention is on Harry." _Ron_ groaned, knowing how much his best friend hated that. 

**"Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry, "is this -- can this be --?"**

"And so it begins." Harry muttered under his breath.

Hermione shot him a sympathetic look and Ron squeezed his shoulder.

**The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.**

"That's got to be a first." Kingsley Shacklebolt declared.

"Unfortunately." Harry muttered while turning red.

**"Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry Potter... what an honor."**

Fred and George stood up. 

"Harry potter, oh such an honor!" Fred said with a great imitation of Percy and bowed. 

"Yes, yes. Such an honor." George said and he grabbed Harry's hand.

"Oh sit down." Harry smiled and pushed them away. 

**He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes.**

Harry turned even redder. "That's a bit much."

McGonagall shook her head. "You don't even know the effect you had on everyone. After eleven years of war and fear, we were finally saved. Everyone wanted to thank you." 

The Hall turned their gaze toward the Boy-Who-Lived in wonder. 

**"Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back."**

"I didn't know you had left." Fred said. 

"Yeah, why didn't you tell us anything?" George added. 

**Harry didn't know what to say.**

"I wouldn't either." Bill said. "It would be very weird."

"It was." _Harry_ murmured. 

**Everyone was looking at him.**

"Awkward." Lee sang. 

**The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out.**

The twins snickered.

"Of course you'd notice that." _Hermione_ rolled her eyes. 

**Hagrid was beaming.** **Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.**

"I never want to be in a situation like that again." Harry declared, surprising those that didn't know him that well. "All I wanted to do was run away."

"I thought Gryffindors liked publicity and never ran away from anything?" asked a confused Slytherin first year. 

"It's Potter, as usual, he's an exception." a third year Slytherin answered, in a bored tone. **  
**

**"Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."**

**"So proud, Mr. Potter, I'm just so proud."**

**"Always wanted to shake your hand -- I'm all of a flutter."**

"My hand hurt after that." Harry muttered to himself. **  
**

**"Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."**

Tonks grinned at the mention of the man. 

**"I've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop."**

Ron snickered. 

"Oh, shut up." Harry mumbled. 

**"He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? He remembers me!"**

"Wow, you really are a celebrity." Dean said impressed. 

"Thanks for the reminder." Harry grumbled. 

Most of the Hall looked confused by his comments. He couldn't really hate his fame, could he?

**Harry shook hands again and again -- Doris Crockford kept coming back for more.**

The twins laughed. 

**A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.**

Harry frowned. 

**"Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."**

The Professors and the trios eyes all darkened, but nobody seemed to notice.

"I wonder what happened to him. He was just gone suddenly." Justin said. 

**"P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand, "c-can't t-tell you how p- pleased I am to meet you."**

Ron snorted. "I'm sure he was."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Remus asked, but they didn't answer. 

**"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"**

"He didn't teach us anything." Harry frowned. 

"Show some respect, Potter!" Umbridge yelled to him. "Professor Quirrell is the only Defense teacher you have had in the past few years besides myself who would have been approved by the ministry."

Harry just stared at her dumbfounded. He badly wanted to yell out that Quirrell was really a Death Eater who happened to have Voldemort on the other side of his head but thought better of it. Instead he said quietly to Ron and Hermione. "I doubt she'll be saying that at the end of the book." They nodded their agreement.

**"D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it.**

"How can they learn how to protect themselves if he's too scared to say it." Moody barked disgusted.

**"N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" He laughed nervously.**

"Nah, he doesn't." Ron grinned. 

"It'd be better if he himself had taught us instead of Quirrell." Fred also grinned and the DA joined. 

**"You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought.**

"Hearth of a lion, that one." Charlie said. 

"How can someone like that teach?" Mrs Weasley asked. 

"To be honest, we really only had two good DADA teachers in our time on Hogwarts." _Ron_ said, looking at Remus and Moody. "And one of them was an imposter."

"What? So if you didn't have a proper teacher, how did you pass your exams?" Bill asked. 

"Oh, we had a teacher." _Hermione_ grinned. "Just not a school teacher." 

The DA laughed and _Harry_ rolled his eyes. 

"It also helps that most of the exams were cancelled because of Voldemort." _he_ said.

"Well, at least we learned to actually use our curses." _Ron_ told him. 

The teachers and adults gave up on trying to figure them out, instead enduring small heart attacks. 

**But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry to himself.**

"Of course not." Parvati rolled her eyes. 

**It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all.**

"Hagrid, you practically threw him to the wolves." Madame Pomfrey scolded. **  
**

**At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble.**

"Wow, it must have been really loud." Charlie said impressed. 

**"Must get on -- lots ter buy. Come on, Harry."**

"Finally!" someone exclaimed. 

**Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time, and Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds.**

"Why does it look so depressing?" Terry asked but he was met with shrugs. 

**Hagrid grinned at Harry. "Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous.**

"Yeah, great..." he said sarcastically. 

**Even Professor Quirrell** **was tremblin' ter meet yeh --**

"But he always does that." Fred rolled is eyes. 

**mind you, he's usually tremblin'."**

Everyone who knew the full story of what had happened that year scowled. **  
**

**"Is he always that nervous?"**

"I would be nervous too if I had Voldemort sticking out of the back of my head." _Ron_ whispered.

"No, Voldemort wasn't there back then, remember? He was probably nervous because he was gonna break into Gringotts." _Harry_ whispered back.  

**"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke.**

"I don't really have any sympathy for him." Harry snorted.

"Why not? What's wrong with him?" Remus asked but he was met with silence. 

**Brilliant mind.**

The students snorted at that. **  
**

**He was fine while he was** **studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some firsthand experience.... They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag --**

' _He ran into something, but it wasn't a hag.'_ Harry thought. Remembering Quirrell telling him he ran into Voldemort in a forest.

**never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject now,**

"Which was great for pranks." Fred said seriously which earned him disapproving looks from his mom. 

**where's me umbrella?"**

"Can't be going without the umbrella." George said seriously. **  
**

**Vampires? Hags? Harry's head was swimming.**

"When isn't it?" Ginny said cheekily.

"Hey!" came Harry's reply.

**Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the trash can.**

"That must have looked weird." Neville grinned. 

**"Three up... two across he muttered. "Right, stand back, Harry." He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.**

"Here it comes." Tonks grinned. 

Everyone leaned forward in anticipation. 

**The brick he had touched quivered -- it wriggled -- in the middle, a small hole appeared -- it grew wider and wider -- a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.**

A lot of the students sighed with distant smiles on their faces as they remembered their first trips to Diagon Alley.

**"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."**

"I love Dragon Alley." Padma said and everyone agreed. 

**He grinned at Harry's amazement.**

"That would be amusing." Hermione smiled. 

**They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly** **back into solid wall.**

**The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons -- All Sizes - Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver -- Self-Stirring -- Collapsible, said a sign hanging over them.**

Ron frowned at the memory of when Percy worked with cauldron's. 

**"Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first."**

"That is important if you want to buy something." Katie smiled. 

**Harry wished he had about eight more eyes.**

Ron shuddered at the spider reference. "Don't say stuff like that." **  
**

Harry laughed. "Sorry, Ron."

**He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at** **once:**

"I think everyone does that the first time that they're there." Ginny smiled. 

**the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their** **shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad...."**

A few chuckled or agreed. 

**A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium -- Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy.**

"Oh, I love that place." a first year Ravenclaw sighed. 

**Several boys of about Harry's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it.**

A few girls rolled their eyes. 

**"Look," Harry heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand -- fastest ever --"**

Harry smiled at the mention of his old broom. 

**There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion** **bottles, globes of the moon....**

"The first impression is always the best." Tonks smiled. 

**"Gringotts," said Hagrid.**

**They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors,**

"It is a very impressive building." Sprout said. 

**wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was -**

**"Yeah, that's a goblin,"**

"It was so weird to see one for the first time." Seamus said. 

**said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps toward him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry.**

"Wow, I didn't know it was possible to be smaller than 11 year old Harry." Fred joked. 

**He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet.**

"You really notice everything." Shacklebolt said impressed. "Those are great quality's if you want to be an Auror." 

"I don't think I want to be an Auror." Harry said. The Hall turned to look at Harry in surprise. 

"What?" Ron asked surprised. 

"I have been forced to fight dark wizards ever since I was little. I don't do it because I like it." He explained. 

"So... what do you want to do?" Hermione asked with a grin. 

Harry thought about it for a second. "A teacher." he grinned and the DA smiled. 

"I think you'd be a great teacher." Susan said and the DA agreed. 

"Okay, skipping over the part where you have been forced to fight dark wizards since you were little, I think that's a great idea." Remus said. 

 _Harry_ , _Ron_ and _Hermione_ smiled at each other. 

**He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:**

**Enter, stranger, but take heed  
Of what awaits the sin of greed,  
For those who take, but do not earn,  
Must pay most dearly in their turn.  
So if you seek beneath our floors  
A treasure that was never yours,**

 

"You hear that?" Bill asked and looked at the _trio_. "Maybe you should take that as advice."  **  
**

**Thief, you have been warned, beware  
**

**Of finding more than treasure there.**

"That is one spooky poem." Terry said. "Although I think a simple ' _rob us and you're dead_ ' would  also suffice"

**"Like I said, Yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid.**

 

"Why didn't you three listen to Hagrid?" Remus groaned. The _trio_ smiled. 

"I'm still not over the fact that you broke out Gringotts with a _dragon_!" Tonks said. "That is seriously awesome."

**A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a** **vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing** **coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses.**

 

"That's so impressing to walk into when you're eleven." 

**There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Harry made for the counter.**

**"Morning,"**

"You're cheerful." George said. 

**said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's safe."**

**"You have his key, Sir?"**

"Oh, do you?" Susan asked. "Because if you don't, that will be a problem."

**"Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers.**

Harry, Hermione and the Weasley's laughed. 

"The goblin must have loved that." Lee grinned. 

**The goblin wrinkled his nose.**

"I'd say he does." Fred answered Lee. 

**Harry watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals.**

"Wow." Several people muttered in awe.

**"Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key.**

 

"It's a wonder you found that in your coat." Justin said. 

**The goblin looked at it closely.**

**"That seems to be in order."**

 

"Of course it is." Harry said. 

**"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest.**

Hagrid blushed. 

**"It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."**

Harry grinned as the teachers groaned again.

"You basically told Harry to ask about what it was." Hermione giggled.

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows while McGonagall gave a sharp hiss. "Hagrid, you really shouldn't have said that."

"Sorry." Hagrid muttered looking very sheepish.

 _'That's what you get for trusting filthy half-breeds.'_ Umbridge thought with a glare at the half-giant.

"What's in vault 713?" Dean asked intrigued.

"See." Harry said turning to look up at the professors with a pointed look. "It's natural that I wanted to know, just remember that."

"I'm curious as to how you did end up figuring it out, Mr. Potter." McGonagall informed him.

Harry just smiled up at his transfiguration teacher mysteriously.

"Does this mean you found out what was in it?" Charlie asked. 

"Of course." Ron smirked. 

"It's Harry." Hermione explained. 

**The goblin read the letter carefully.**

**"Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"**

_Harry_ , _Ron_ and _Hermione_ glanced at each other at that name. 

**Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets,**

A few people chuckled again. 

**he and Harry followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall.**

**"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked.**

"See? Harry's getting curious." Hermione added to her previous comment.

Harry smiled sheepishly at her.

**"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously.**

Remus groaned. "Hagrid, you don't say that to an eleven year old! Stuff like that will make him want to know even more!" **  
**

**"Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."**

Tonks laughed. "And that just made me even more curious and I'm not an eleven year old boy."

Hagrid looked even more sheepish.

**Griphook held the door open for them.**

"What a gentleman." Fred said. He got quite some weird looks for that."

**Harry, who had expected more marble, was surprised.**

"Yeah, I was too." Justin agreed. 

**They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor.**

"This has a very Indiana Jones vibe, don't you think." a muggle born asked. Some agreed. 

**Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in -- Hagrid with some difficulty --**

The twins chuckled at the image of Hagrid trying to get in that car.

**and were off.**

**At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left,** **but it was impossible.**

"That's the point, I'm surprised you remembered that much." Bill told Harry. **  
**

"Why did you try to remember?" Ron asked.

"I don't know. It was a whole new experience." Harry mumbled. 

**The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering.**

"That always freaked me out when I was little." Padma said. 

**Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open.**

"You are too curious for your own good." Hermione shook her head. 

**Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon,**

Charlie let out an indignant sound. 

**but too late - -**

"Awww." George moaned.

**they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.**

**"I never know," Harry called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"**

Ron slapped a hand over Hermione's mouth before she could answer, wincing at the glare she sent him in return.

"I know now, Hermione." Harry told her quickly.

Arthur shook his head. "Somehow I don't think Hagrid's the one to ask."

 _'Obviously.'_ Draco thought. He was sick of reading this book and they were only a few chapters in.

**"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," said Hagrid.**

"Good explanation, Hagrid." Dean snickered. **  
**

**"An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."**

"Oh oh." 

**He did look very green, and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling.**

"Yeah, I always feel like that too." Someone agreed with a grimace. 

**Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.**

Harry ignored the awed looks being sent his way by some first years. **  
**

**"All yours," smiled Hagrid.**

**All Harry's -- it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking.**

 

Padfoot growled at the book.

 

"I assure you that they would not be able to touch it." Dumbledore assured Harry.

 

**How often had** **they complained how much Harry cost them to keep?**

"I can't believe them! They never even bought you anything!" Hermione growled angrily. **  
**

**And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to him, buried deep under London.**

"That's a nice surprise." Seamus said dryly. 

 

**Hagrid helped Harry pile some of it into a bag. "The gold ones are Galleons," he explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to** **a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough.**

"I don't think he'll immediately remember that." Tonks smiled. 

**Right,** **that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe** **for yeh."**

"Good idea. Don't let an eleven year old alone with that amount of money." Remus said. 

**He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now,**

"Oh, are we going to see what's in there?" Ginny asked. 

**please, and can we go more slowly?"**

"Just one speed." Bill said with a large grin.

"I think they're fun." Harry said with a shrug.

"You're mental, you are," Ron gaped at him. "If you think those evil deathtraps are fun." Many were nodding in agreement.

**"One speed only," said Griphook.**

**They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners.**

A few people who had been deeper in Gringotts, shivered at the memory of the cold. 

**They went rattling over an underground ravine, and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bottom,**

"Harry." Hermione groaned. 

"Were you determined to lose your head or fall out of the cart?" asked Angelina. **  
**

"What if you had fallen off?" Remus asked.

Harry frowned. "I think that's probably one of the safer things I've done in my life."

Remus groaned. 

**but Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruff of his neck.**

"At least Hagrid had some sense." Molly shook her head. 

**Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.**

"A high security vault, then?" Katie asked. 

**"Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.**

"That's cool!" Seamus said. 

"I want one of those!" Fred agreed. 

**"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.**

"Okay, now I definitely want one!" Fred exclaimed. 

**"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked. "About once every ten years," said Griphook with a rather nasty grin.**

Many people blanched at the thought of being stuck down there.

"Goblins really are a nasty piece of work." Justin muttered to Ernie who nodded vigorously in agreement.

**Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault,**

"You weren't wrong." Ron whispered to Harry. 

**Harry was sure, and he leaned forward eagerly,**

Everyone leaned forward in anticipation. **  
**

**expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least --**

The Trio shared a look. 

 **but at first he thought it was empty. Then**   **he noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor.**

" _That's_ it?" a Slytherin second year asked, sounding a little bit disappointed.

**Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was,**

"Of course you did." Hermione rolled her eyes. 

**but knew better than to ask.**

"Since when?" _Hermione_ asked startled.

 _Harry_ thought about it for a while and then sighed. "I have no idea." 

 _Ron_ burst out laughing. 

**"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid.**

The twins grinned mischievous and started to whisper. 

**One wild cart ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money.**

Hermione smiled at her best friend. 

**He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his whole life --**

"It wasn't that hard to achieve that." Harry said. 

**more money than even Dudley had ever had.**

"You still shouldn't spent it all at once." Molly said. 

"Don't worry." Harry reassured her. "Hagrid stopped me." And he grinned at the half giant. 

**"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.**

"Out of all the things there, you pick the most boring to begin with?" Fred asked incredulously.  

**"Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I** **slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts."**

"Hagrid..." Mcgonagall groaned and Hagrid scratched his neck sheepishly. 

**He did still look a bit sick, so Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.**

"I think everyone feels nervous when they enter they're first wizard shop." Justin said. 

**Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.**

"I hate mauve." Padma frowned.

"Better mauve than pink." Ginny snorted. Her brothers laughed as the toad glared at the girl who didn't look faced by it. 

**"Hogwarts, dear?"**

"Of course!" Fred snorted. "Where would he go other wise? Beauxbatons?" 

"Although I would look fabulous in Fleur's outfit." _Harry_ told him seriously without missing a beat which caused the twins and both the Ron's to burst out into laughter. 

**she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here -- another young man being fitted up just now, in fact. "**

"Oh really? Did you make a friend?" Molly questioned interested.

"Um, not exactly." Harry told her.

**In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes.**

Those who had worked out from the description who Harry had met were sniggering, and Malfoy's cheeks tinged pink a bit. **  
**

"I didn't know you met Malfoy before Hogwarts." Hermione said surprised and those who hadn't figured it out yet, did now.

Harry shrugged. "We weren't the best of friends in the beginning, remember." Hermione nodded. 

**Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him slipped a long robe over his head, and began to pin it to the right length.**

**"Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?"**

**"Yes," said Harry.**

"Wow, wow, wow, wow, hold up." Fred said. "Did Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy just talk to each other without any snide comments?" 

"They didn't even say two words." Remus frowned. 

"What's your point?" Ron asked. 

"Yeah, normally they'd be at each others throat already." Hermione raised an eyebrow at her best friend who was looking away. 

"I just met him, why would I attack him?" he mumbled. 

**"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands,"**

 

"Why would your mom be looking at wands? The wand chooses the wizard?" Hermione asked.

 

Draco ignored her.

 

**said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice.**

Draco huffed annoyed, but didn't say anything. He remembered what he had said to Harry, and it was not good. 

**"Then I'm going to drag them off to took at racing brooms.**

"But... you can't even have one." Angelina said bewildered. 

**I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting** **me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."**

Draco got some annoyed and shocked looks. 

Many teachers turned to glare at Draco, whose cheeks were beginning to tinge pink.

"How'd that work out for you." Ron smirked. 

 

**Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley.**

"I'm insulted!" Draco huffed, glaring at Harry, who was trying not to laugh. **  
**

**"Have you got your own broom?" the boy went on.**

"Yes." Fred nodded. 

**"No," said Harry.**

**"Play Quidditch at all?"**

"Oh yeah!" Katie grinned. "Best seeker ever!" 

**"No," Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.**

"Wow, it's so weird to think that James Potter's son didn't know what Quidditch is." Remus chuckled.  

**"I do -- Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree.**

A few girls snorted. _Boys..._

**Know what house you'll be in yet?"**

"No one knows until they are sorted, Mr. Malfoy." McGonagall said.  **  
**

**"No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.**

"Don't." Remus said as he glanced at the Malfoy boy. "It would be a wonder if you knew what he was talking about." 

"I know." Harry mumbled. 

**"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin,**

"Of course you'll be." Ron rolled his eyes and Draco glared at him. 

**all our family have been -- imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"**

"Oi!" The Hufflepuffs shouted, who turned to glare at Draco.

"Hey!" Tonks protested looking offended.

**"Mmm," said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.**

"I know what you mean." Lee said seriously, earning some weird looks.  

**"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there,**

"What's wrong with Hagrid?" Charlie snapped at Draco with a dangerous look. 

**grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice creams to show he couldn't come in.**

"That's nice of him, getting you an ice cream." Luna observed, smiling distantly. **  
**

**"That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't.**

A few people chuckled. 

**"He works at Hogwarts."**

**"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"**

Those who like Hagrid turned to glare at Draco.

"Hagrid is not a servant." Dumbledore said with a pointed look. 

**"He's the gamekeeper," said Harry. He was liking the boy less and less every second.**

"I don't blame you." Ron told him. **  
**

**"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage --**

 

"He is _not!"_  someone from the Ravenclaw table yelled.

 

Umbridge smirked. Of course the half-breed was savage.

 

**lives in a hut on the** **school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."**

More glares were sent Draco's way, which he tried very hard to ignore. **  
**

**"I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly.**

"Thanks, Harry." Hagrid beamed at Harry over the cheers of agreements. 

"Of course." Harry replied with a smile.

**"Do you?" said the boy,**

"Yes, I do." 

**with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"**

"Oh, you horrible twat." Katie hissed. **  
**

"Could you just keep your mouth shut for two seconds?" Charlie groaned.

**"They're dead," said Harry shortly. He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy.**

"I wouldn't either, mate." Ron agreed, privately hoping that he'd never have to go through that. **  
**

**"Oh, sorry," said the other,. not sounding sorry at all.**

"Malfoy!" McGonagall snapped, turning her icy angry glare on the pale Slytherin. **  
**

**"But they were our kind, weren't they?"**

"What does it matter?" Hermione asked heatedly. **  
**

"I think it's good idea to say sorry to Harry." Astoria Greengrass said.

"I don't blame Malfoy." Harry said with a frown. Everyone in the Hall turned to look at him in surprise. "I blame his father." he said with a shrug. "He's the one who planted all these believes in his head."

Draco, along with the rest of the Hall didn't know what to say, but McGonagall was looking at the Gryffindor with pride. 

**"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."**

**"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you?**

 

"Stupid pureblood supremacy." Justin growled. **  
**

**They're** **just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine.**

"Harry's right, it's like Lucius Malfoy is talking to me." Remus frowned at the boy who tried to sink through the floor. 

**I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families.**

"Oh, yeah. That's definitely Lucius." Arthur nodded. 

**What's your surname, anyway?"**

"Wonder what his reaction is gonna be?" Susan smiled. 

 

"That should shut him up." Ernie said with a grin.

**But before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear,"**

"Awwwww." Fred whined. "I wanted to know what his reaction was gonna be." 

**and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy,**

Draco huffed but didn't say anything. 

**hopped down from the footstool.** **"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose,"** **said the drawling boy.**

"Oh, you will." Ron grinned. 

**Harry was rather quiet as he ate the ice cream Hagrid had bought him (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts).**

"I love that one." Ginny said smiling.

"So do I." Harry agreed.

They both grinned at each other.

**"What's up?" said Hagrid.**

**"Nothing," Harry lied.**

"Really, Harry, you have to learn not to keep things to yourself like that." Hermione scolded. **  
**

"Besides, you can't lie." George said.

**They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote.**

"Cool!" someone from the Hufflepuff table exclaimed. **  
**

**When they had left the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"**

"Still can't believe that you, of _all_ people, had to ask that." Ron muttered, thinking about how good his best friend was at being a Seeker.

"Oliver would faint if he heard you say that, Harry." Alicia grinned. 

**"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know -- not knowin' about Quidditch!"**

Most of the Gryffindor House nodded in agreement. 

**"Don't make me feel worse,"**

"I wasn' tryin' ter be." Hagrid mumbled embarrassed.

"I know, it's okay." Harry smiled. 

**said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pate boy in Madam Malkin's.** **"--and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in."**

The muggleborns scowled at that.

**"Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were --**

"Yeah, I'd like to know what you'd have said." Bill said. 

**he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk.**

"Yeah, but I don't think they're glad that he's back." _Ron_ chuckled. 

**You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh.**

"Yes..." _Harry_ grimaced. **  
**

**Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones** **with magic in 'em in a long line 0' Muggles --**

"Yeah, Hermione." _Harry_ and _Ron_ grinned. 

**look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"**

"Hagrid is right." McGonagall said.  **  
**

**"So, what is Quidditch?"**

"The best sport ever!" Fred screamed. 

**"It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like -- like soccer in the Muggle world --**

"How do you know about soccer?" Dean asked Hagrid. 

Hagrid shrugged. "There 'ave been more muggle-borns, yer know." 

**everyone follows Quidditch -- played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls -- sorta hard ter explain the rules."**

"I guess that it's a bit hard to a boy who doesn't know anything yet." Angelina acknowledged.

**"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"**

**"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but --"**

"Hey!" cried the Hufflepuffs. **  
**

**"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff" said Harry gloomily.**

"Hufflepuff wouldn't be a bad house to be in." Harry said thoughtfully.

"They really are all about the equality of people and not discriminating for anything." Hermione also pointed out.

**"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly.**

There was murmured agreement from three of the four Houses. Unnoticed by everyone else, Harry squirmed slightly in his seat, remembering the Sorting.

"Not all Slytherins are evil." _Harry_ said.

Everyone, Slytherins included turned to look at _Harry_.

"What?" _He_ asked, shocked everyone was staring at him. "Just because I'm in Gryffindor doesn't mean I hate all Slytherins."

 _He_ got a calculating look from most of the students and the adults smiled at him. 

**"There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin.**

"That's not true." Harry frowned. "This is what Voldemort makes you think it, but it's not true."

"Right, name one Slytherin who wasn't a bad guy." Zacharias Smith sneered. 

 _Ron_ glared at him and _Harry_ raised an eyebrow. "Regulus Black." 

The adults looked surprised to hear that name and Sirius barked in surprise. 

"Okay, name another." Zacharias said, still not convinced. 

"Andromeda Tonks." _Ron_ said with a glance to Tonks. 

"Horace Slughorn." _Harry_ looked at Dumbledore who raised an eyebrow. 

"The great Merlin himself." _Hermione_ smirked. 

"Actually, all the Slytherin's except for a select few." _Harry_ decided. 

"Okay, but he said who _wasn't_ in Slytherin, bet you can't name one of those." 

"Karkoroff." Ron frowned. 

"Gellert Grindewald. The second most famous dark wizard of all times." _Hermione_ said. 

"All the other guys we fought, whose names we can't spoil yet." _Harry_ told him. 

"And Sirius Black, right?" Susan said. "He wasn't in Slytherin."

"Uhh, yeah." Harry said. They'd find out later. 

**You-Know-Who was one."**

**"Vol-, sorry - You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"**

"Yeah, what I don't get. How could you let someone into a school called Voldemort?" Lee asked. "What kind of name is that?" 

"What kind of name is Nymphadora?" Tonks shrugged. "Pure-bloods come up with the weirdest names."

Those who knew the truth shared a look. 

**"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.**

"A very long time ago." Dumbledore agreed. 

**They bought Harry's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all.**

Hermione got a dreamy look on her face at the thought of all the books. Ron and Harry knowing what she was thinking about shared amused looks.

**Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these.**

"Yeah, they are amazing." Ernie agreed. 

**Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue- Tying and Much, Much More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.**

There were some snickers around the Hall. 

**"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."**

"Atta boy Harry!" The twins cheered.

"If you ever want help with that-" Fred started.

"-we would be more than willing to assist." George finished.

Molly looked like she wanted to reprimand them, but thinking of the way he was treated she stayed silent. _'As long as it's nothing to bad or illegal.'_ She thought to herself giving her sons appraising looks.

**"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances,"**

"Does being attacked by a Dementor count?" Harry asked innocently while looking at Umbridge and Fudge who scowled.  

**said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."**

"I'm pretty sure Hermione could already do it." Ron grinned at her, remembering the spells she could already preform the first time they met. 

**Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron,**

 

"I don't even know why I would want." Harry shook his head as Hermione and Ron laughed. 

**either ("It says pewter on yer list"), but they got a nice set of scales for weighing** **potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited** **the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages.**

"I was actually looking forward to potions." Harry stated. "Until I met Snape." **  
**

**Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined** **the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling.**

"That actually looks pretty cool." Fred said. 

**While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each**

"While Hagrid has them hanging in his cabin like it's nothing." _Harry_ laughed. 

**and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop).** **Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again.**

**"Just yer wand left -**

"Finally! What, you saved the best for last?" George asked. 

**A yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present."**

The adults and Harry's friends smiled at Hagrid. 

"Thanks Hagrid." Harry smiled who waved it away. 

"O' course." 

**Harry felt himself go red. "You don't have to --"**

"Come on, Harry. It's your birthday! Don't be embarrassed for receiving a present." Tonks said. 

"You are way too humble." Remus said. "Just like Lily."

"I am not." a red Harry mumbled. 

Ron and Hermione snorted. "Right..." 

**"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal.**

"Aww, that's so nice of you!" Lavender cooed. 

**Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at -**

Neville went slightly red. "Trevor was evil." he muttered.  **  
**

**an' I don' like cats,**

McGonagall raised an eyebrow.

**they make me sneeze.**

"Me too." someone grimaced. 

**I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want** **owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'."**

"They are." Harry agreed.

**Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing.**

"Is that how you got Hedwig?" Seamus asked. 

Harry nodded. "We walked in and she flew straight to me. Wouldn't leave me alone, so we bought her." He grinned at the memory.

"She's such a pretty owl." Lavender sighed.

 _Harry_ smiled at the memory of his old owl. 

**He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.**

Harry's grin vanished as a grimace replaced it. He looked utterly disgusted with his past self.

**"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys.**

Harry's friend were glaring at the book again. 

**Just Ollivanders left now - only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."**

"Yeah it is." a few students exclaimed. 

**A magic wand... this was what Harry had been really looking forward to.**

"Everyone does." Dumbledore smiled.

**The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.**

"That wand had been there since as long as I can remember." Remus said.

"Who's is it?" Micheal asked. 

"No one but Ollivander knows. Every time someone asks, he changes the story." Dumbledore answered seemingly amused.

**A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait.**

"Although Ollivander is very nice, he's still a little creepy." Katie said and there were some murmurs of agreement. 

**Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling.**

Some Order members and teacher chuckled at young Harry's thoughts. 

**For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.**

"Really?" Moody asked sitting forward, his magical and normal eye both focused on Harry. Around the Hall the adult's faces showed a mixture of awe and pride.

Harry shrugged looking faintly alarmed. "Why? Couldn't any of you?"

Dumbledore answered. "It takes a lot of power and good instincts to be able to detect magical signatures. Not many people can do that."

"But its a good thing?" Harry asked nervously uneasy with the attention he was once again receiving.

"Yes, Harry it is." The headmaster answered his eyes twinkling.

**"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair.**

Several students chuckled at that. **  
**

**An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.**

"Ollivander." a Ravenclaw said.  

"No shit, Sherlock." her friend rolled her eyes. 

"Oh, shut up, Watson." 

**"Hello," said Harry awkwardly.**

Ron snorted an laughed and Harry pouted. 

**"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question.**

"Of course it wasn't." Remus smiled. "You're James and Lily's son." 

**"You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand.**

"Really?" someone frowned. 

**Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."**

Flitwick smiled sadly as he remembered his star student of her year. **  
**

**Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those** **silvery eyes were a bit creepy.**

"Yeah, they are." a lot of people agreed, shuddering slightly. **  
**

**"Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration.**

 

McGonagall looked down as she remembered how good James had been at Transfiguration. **  
**

"Yeah, I'd say James was pretty good at Transfiguration." Remus smirked and glanced at the Trio who burst out laughing, much to the confusion to the others.

**Well, I** **say your father favored it -- it's really the wand that chooses the** **wizard, of course."**

"That's like his motto." Colin said. 

 

**Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.**

"Creepy..." Fred said. 

**"And that's where..."** **Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.**

"Change that. _Mega-_ creepy." George corrected him. **  
**

**"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it,"**

"What?" someone exclaimed. They had never thought about it like that. 

**he said softly. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do...."**

"No one could have known what he'd do." Dumbledore murmured softly. **  
**

"There is some information I can live without." Ron shivered.

"You never know, mr Weasley." Dumbledore said mysteriously. "It might be useful."

"What do you mean?" Remus asked.

"Well, I believe that everything that is written in these books will help us change the future. Maybe, one day, this information will help with Voldemort's downfall." He elaborated. 

 _Harry_ , _Ron_ and _Hermione_ shared a look in surprise. 

"Yeah, as if Voldemort is gonna be defeated by his own wand." George said. 

The _trio_ were having a very hard time keeping their laughter in. 

**He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid.**

"You and me both, mate." Ron said. 

**"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again.... Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"**

"I can't believe he actually remembers everyone." Lisa said in wonder. 

**"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.**

**"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.**

"Yeah, but not as if he deserved it." Harry glared at Fudge. 

**"Er -- yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.**

**"But you don't use them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply.**

Most of the Hall snorted and even the teachers looked amused. 

**"Oh, no, sit," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.**

"No no." Fred grinned.

"Of _course_ he doesn't!" George added, unable to contain a smirk.

**"Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now -- Mr. Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"**

"For some reason, I don't think you know what he means." Neville grinned. 

**"Er -- well, I'm right-handed," said Harry.**

_Ron_ chuckled and received a slap from _Hermione_. 

**"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head.**

"I still don't see the point in that." Harry grumbled. **  
**

**As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."**

"Isn't that the truth." Ron mumbled thinking of when he used to have Charlie's old wand.

Neville looked down at his wand, which had once belonged to his father. _'Maybe that's why. I should talk to gran.'_

**Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.**

"He did the same thing when I was there." Ernie said. 

**"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. just take it and give it a wave."**

"I'm guessing that didn't work, since that's not your wand." Neville said. He vaguely remembered that Harry had a Phoenix hair as a core. 

**Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.**

"So annoying when he does that." Padma muttered to Michael. **  
**

**"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try --"**

**Harry tried -- but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.**

"How many did you try?" Justin asked interested. 

"I can't remember." Harry said vaguely. 

**"No, no -here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."**

"Does Ollivander has his entire shop memorized?" Susan asked. 

"Probably." 

**Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.**

"He does like a challenge, Ollivander." Dumbledore smiled thinking of his old friend.

v **"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere -- I wonder, now - - yes, why not -- unusual combination -- holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."**

Neville smiled. He was sure that was Harry's wand.

**Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers.**

Everyone smiled, remembering getting their wand.

**He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework,**

"Gryffindor!" Fred and George yelled. 

**throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls.**

Some in the Hall cheered. 

**Hagrid whooped and** **clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good.**

"Finally." Ron grinned. "You really were a difficult one." 

**Well, well, well... how curious... how very curious... "**

"What's so curious?" wondered Hermione.

**He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious... curious..."**

"What is?" Lee asked frustrated. 

**"Sorry," said Harry, "but what's curious?"**

 

"That's what we all want to know." 

**Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare.**

 

Some students shuddered again. 

**"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand.**

"That's cool." Dennis said. 

**It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather -- just one other.**

"Wait, what? Since when do they do that?" Justin asked confused. 

"It only happened one time." Dumbledore said. He looked at Harry who was looking away, refusing to meet anyones eyes. 

**It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother -- why, it's brother gave you that scar."**

"What?!" most of the students and some of the teachers exclaimed. 

"Yeah, mine and Voldemort's wand are twins." Harry sighed. "But that also saved me last June. Besides, it's not like I'm an evil wizards who killed people because of that wand." 

A silence settled over the Hall and Ron and Hermione grinned at their best friend. 

"You're absolutely right, Harry." Hermione said and the Order and The DA agreed which ended the discussion. 

**Harry swallowed.**

**"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember.... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter.... After all, He- Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things -- terrible, yes, but great."**

"Is he complimenting You-Know-Who?" Parvarti asked scandalized.

"Not the person, no." Dumbledore answered thoughtfully. "More like the magic involved, Voldemort may be evil but he is an exceptional wizard."

**Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much.**

"Me neither, mate." Ron agreed. 

**He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand, and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.**

**The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty.**

 

"The Leaky Cauldron was empty?" Bill asked surprised. 

**Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn't even notice how much people were gawking at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the snowy owl asleep in its cage on Harry's lap.**

Fred, George and Lee laughed at the mental image. 

**Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realized** **where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder.**

"Wow, you were really out of it." Tonks said. 

 

**"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said.**

**He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow.**

"It always does." Justin nodded. 

**"You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.**

"At least Hagrid notices it." Neville said. 

**Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life --**

Hagrid smiled at Harry who smiled back. 

**and yet -- he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words.**

"You're not still doubting if this is real, right?" Remus asked and Harry shook his head. 

**"Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last.**

"Well, you are special." Remus said as if it was obvious. "The fact that he grew up with those Dursley's and hasn't become bitter is special by itself."

Sirius barked in agreement. 

"You have such low confidence..." Hermione said disbelievingly.

**"All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander... but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for.**

Most in the Hall looked at Harry in shock. Could it be true, does he really not like his fame? **  
**

Meanwhile, Harry was lost in thoughts.

**I don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry -- I mean, the night my parents died."**

"I wish that lasted..." _Harry_ said. He hadn't want to know what his parents had said before they died. 

**Hagrid leaned across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile.**

Harry, Ron and Hermione smiled at their friend. He is and always will be one giant softie. 

**"Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough.**

"It's not like you had a choice." _Ron_ snorted. "Of course _you_ had to save everyone in your first year and the years after that." 

The adults looked surprised. Exactly how many times did Harry get into trouble? 

**Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard.**

"No, really? Couldn't imagine what that's like. I've had such a quiet life." Harry mused, his voice saturated in sarcasm.

Next to him, Ron snorted.

**But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts -- I did -- still do, 'smatter of fact."**

"Wow, Hagrid. That was a great speech!" Tonks said. ****

"Yeah, can't you say that to all the first years?" Remus said, remembering how nervous he had been.

**Hagrid helped Harry on to the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope.**

**"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts, " he said. "First o' September -- King's Cross -- it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl,**

Harry grinned. Protective Hagrid was the best one. 

**she'll know where to find me.... See yeh soon, Harry."**

"You didn't tell him how to get onto the platform!" McGonagall groaned, massaging her temples.

"It's alright, Professor." Harry grinned. "I got onto the platform fine."

He and the Weasley's grinned at each other.

**The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window,**

"Aww, Harry. I forgot how cute you were when you were younger." Hermione cooed along with some other girls at a very red Harry. 

"Yeah, what happened?" Ron asked, barely containing his laughter. 

**but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.**

Dumbledore looked outside and saw that it was dark already. 

"Ah, doesn't time fly when you're having fun." he said smiling. 

"You call this fun?" An annoyed Harry said. 

"Why don't we have dinner and then head upstairs? If that's alright with you, minister?" Dumbledore added. 

Fudge nodded and the tables appeared again, loaded with the most delicious food. 

The whole Hall was discussing the books, but Harry, who wasn't hungry, and didn't want to answer any questions, stood up and walked towards the doors. 

Hermione and Ron shared a look, and even though they were both hungry, they followed Harry. 

Everyone followed the three with their eyes before returning to what they had been doing before. 

The Order was discussing the dangers that the teenagers would be able to get in, and what information they had collected so far. 

After dinner, Dumbledore told everyone to go to bed.

"Umm, not to be a party pooper, but, where are we sleeping?" _Harry_ asked while gesturing to _Ron_ , _Hermione_ and the Order.

 


End file.
